
Qass_ 



Book_- 



MORNING LECTURES 



TWEKTY DISCOUBSES, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



gximU of %x*$tm m tit iriy of §tew §o*&, 



IN THE WINTEE AND SPEING OF 1863. 



BY ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, 

Author of several volumes on the Harmonial Philosophy. 



KEW YOEK: 
C. M. PLUMB & CO., PUBLISHERS, 

2U CANAL STREET. 

LONDON: J. BURNS, CAMBER WELL. 

1865. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by 

ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 



i ) ^1 



" FRIEND OF PROGRESS " PRINT, 
274 Canal St., New York. 



PREFACE. 



The Lectures of which this volume is composed, were 
lelivered Sunday mornings before the Friends of Progress 
in the city of New York, during the Winter and Spring of 
1863. The subject matter of the discourses, and the 
language in which they are clothed, were drawn from the 
inspiration given during the moments allotted to their 
delivery — sometimes, indeed, the speaker had not chosen 
either his theme, or the line of argument to be pursued, 
until he arose to address the congregation. This fact will 
amply account for both the defects and excellences which 
may be found sprinkled through the following pages. 
Doubtless the author would have given more time to the 
selection of themes and the construction of arguments — 
which is ever to be recommended — if his thoughts and time 
had not been so entirely devoted to many and various 
labors wholly disconnected with this course of Lectures. 
And yet, in the light of his experience, it is questionable 
whether the contents of this volume would have been 
improved. If all scripture " given by inspiration is 
profitable," why may not the same rule apply to Morning 
Lectures, given under the quickening power of the same 
universal principle ? 

That this volume may be a friend to the lonely, a guide 
to the wanderer, and a ray of light to those in darkness, is 
the sincere prayer of 

New York, June 1, 1864. A. J. D. 



CONTE NTS 



Page 
Defeats and Victories, - - - - 5 

The World's True Redeemer, - - - - 28 

The End of the World, - - ... 51 

The New Birth, 82 

The Shortest Road to the Kingdom of Heaven, - - 107 

The Reign of Anti-Christ, - - - - - 134 

The Spirit and its Circumstances, - - 154 

Eternal Value of Pure Purposes, - - - - 188 

Wars of the Blood, Brain, and Spirit, - 199 

Truths, Male and Female, ----- 213 

False and True Education, - - . 238 

The Equalities and Inequalities of Human Nature, . - 253 

Social Centers in the Summer-Land, - 266 

Poverty and Riches, ------ 288 

The Object of Life, - .... 310 

Expensiveness of Error in Religion, - - - - 328 

Winter-Land and Summer-Land, - 349 

Language and Life in the Summer-Land, - - - 377 

Material Work for Spiritual Workers, ... 405 

Ultimates in the Summer-Land, - - - - 421 



MORNING LECTURES. 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 



" Many a foe is a friend in disguise ; 
Many a trouble a blessing most true." 

I have for years observed that the earth is full of 
downcast, melancholy persons, or of indifferent, stoical, 
lukewarm, shipwrecked characters — both the logical 
consequences of this over-spun popular but dogmatic 
theology, which is the plague of the world in general 
and the private sorrow of the millions of Americans in 
particular. Atheism is a beautiful belief, honest and 
soul-saving, compared with that desperate, godless, devil- 
full theology, which gives such splendor to the physical 
churches and such despair to the congregations of 
believing millions who support them. Mankind must 
obtain a new conception of the world in order to drive 
out this theological disease, which has been communi- 
cated to almost every sensitive, religious, spiritual, and 
poetic mind. It has sickened and blighted every soul 
that has unfortunately come under the sable wings of 
this dismal, desperate dream of the Oriental world. 
Hebrew mythology is the basis of the theology of 
America this very hour. Only where there happens to 
be a meeting Quakers, of Unitarians or LTniversalists, 



6 MORNISG LECTURES. 

of Spiritual Reformers or of Progressive Friends- 
only in such places is there any living protest to the 
prevalence of the abominable miasma which has gone 
abroad like the plagues of Egypt, filtering itself 
through all human institutions, not even excepting 
science, literature, and the arts. 

Now I find myself called upon to speak in emphatic 
words against the desperate, dismal disease-promoting, 
despair-propagating tendency of Hebrew mythology, 
which is the accredited theology and petted religion of 
Christendom. And it seems to me that, if there be 
vouchsafed enough light and strength at this time, we 
may do something towards augmenting the force of this 
protest by considering the question of "Defeats and 
Victories." 

There are two propositions which stand before my 
mind as incontrovertible, and as necessary to a distinct 
and full comprehension of the subject: 

First: That forms, vehicles, mediums, organiza- 
tions, institutions, equipments, agents, attorneys, are 
transient, while that which they convey is permanent 
and eternal — and, therefore, that even what are called 
" Accidents/' are but the conductors or viaducts of 
laws that are just as full of the wisdom of Deity as the 
most delicious blessings that ever hugged your heart. 

Second : That all great immutable scientific princi- 
ples, and the eternal spiritual truths, have been con- 
veyed to mankind by means of blood, fires, dungeons, 
racks, gibbets, guillotines, governments, revolutions, 
convulsions, spasms, fits, earthquakes, and hysterics. 

These two propositions stand before* my mind with 
as much distinctness and significance as does any per- 
son's countenance in this room. To recognize the 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 7 

Divinity in the accident, to see Good in dire disaster, 
to be strong enough to overcome evil in your oppressive 
misfortunes, to be pure enough to conquer the vice that 
is within you, or just touching you, is to give evidence 
of your complete and practical recognition of that sub- 
lime truth in the first proposition which is essential to 
every person's success and happiness in society, in busi- 
ness, in death, in resurrection. The most beautiful 
success is the most desperate disaster to him who is not 
wise enough to accept God as much in cloud as in sun- 
shine. 

Now, I am looking at and speaking to the world 
to-day from these propositions and principles. The 
whole universe appears to me to be regulated by a sys- 
tem of immutable, divine, benign, heavenly principles, 
which ooze perpetually forth and declare themselves 
even through our direst defeats, through our misfor- 
tunes, our failings and faults, and through those vari- 
ous and numerous accidents which occur in the history 
of human experience. 

Rightly looked at, Adam fell up stairs! (I am 
speaking now of the accepted story in Hebrew 
mythology with reference to the first human defeat — 
perhaps the best, most full of wisdom, most searching 
in its spiritual lessons.) This Hebrew myth, at basis a 
beautiful truth, teaches that Adam fell upward and on- 
ward — out of his ephemeral, butterfly, useless exist- 
ence, into manly health and laborious progression. He 
was born into luxury ; this was the primal cause of his 
first defeat. He was physically and spiritually success- 
ful from the beginning ; that^ caused his downfall and 
expulsion. Born from the skies, inheriting an incalcu- 



8 MORNING LECTURES. 

lable fortune — never having earned a penny of it, not 
having acquired an item of the powers and truths 
which were, slumbering in his possession — consequently 
he had no appreciation of either, and like all other 
superficial riches and unmerited success, his advantages 
took unto themselves wings and fled, dropping him in 
one of the open fields which were longing for a Man ! 
He met multiform obstacles on every side; but they 
were his best friends. If the first man Adam had early 
met a little hill of gold, not more than six inches high 
and ten inches in diameter, I fear he would never have 
successfully surmounted it. Undoubtedly he had suffi- 
cient of the " Yankee " in him to have influenced his 
mind to bow to " the golden image and worship it." But 
instead, he met only thistles, thorns, tempests, hurri- 
canes, earthquakes and fits; but they sternly and hon- 
estly befriended him. 

Do you not pity those feeble forest trees that must 
grow where the winds never blow with tempestuous 
fury? You never find a great, beautiful oak, never 
a grand, well-developed pine, never thrifty fruit- 
trees, nor a great variety of wild flowers, where the 
winds are not permitted to work with great energy. 
Instead, you find swamps of stagnation and cesspools 
pervaded with deadly miasma ; also you find subterra- 
nean beasts there — repulsive creatures, unfit to live 
above ground, crawling and wriggling in the undis- 
turbed sinks of nastiness. 

Again, do you not pity a Brother man who is so well 
fed in body that he has grown exceedingly lean and 
mean in his spirit? General Banks (who now occu- 
pies a very prominent office, probably standing on the 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 9 

threshold of the most important movement about to 
connect the East inseparably with the great States and 
Territories west of the Mississippi,) graduated from one 
of New England's cotton-mills, and not from some high 
temple of learning, not from the fostering caresses and 
enfeebling attentions of very rich parents. No ! 
Master-men are the productions of those energetic 
principles in Nature which produce and regulate all 
accidents ; in the midst of apparent confusion develop- 
ing the most orderly ends and guiding events to perfect 
purposes. 

I accept the doctrine that man is the ultimate image 
of " a divine plan/' and that he is destined to be sym- 
metrically developed in body and caused to ripen in 
spirit. These ends are accomplished by means of out- 
ward agents and spiritual influences — by mistakes and 
personal faults — and not altogether by means of riches 
and idleness, worldly success and bodily happiness. I 
do not know of a single remarkable instance where a 
man, made suddenly rich or popular, continues com- 
mitted to the noble truths and large -sympathies which 
distinguished him before his great success. But I do 
know a man who was very poor from his birth, but 
w r ho became gradually rich and victorious in the midst 
of disasters and misfortunes. He never lost his interest 
in the struggling poor of the world, but gave, and still 
gives, wisely of both wisdom and wealth. 

The English Commissioner of Revenue near a hun- 
dred years ago undertook to gather exorbitant taxes 
from the American people. He was obliged to depart 
without the tax-money, and he sought his personal 
safety out of Boston. The people would not submit to 
1* 



10 MORNING LECTURES. 

tyranny that came over the free ocean. The tea was 
thrown over in the harbor. Americans would no 
longer be willing slaves to the requisitions and imposi- 
tions of their trans-Atlantic masters. What was the 
result? All history of this country is resplendently 
begemmed with the consequences. 1776 is referred to 
in all the school-bopks, and by all loyal persons, both 
in song and in story, as the commencement of " an 
era" of Freedom in the political and religious history 
of the American. England's great defeat was justice 
and success to her. It drove her snugly home, con- 
centrated her upon the properties of her own kingdom 
and commerce, and she has ever since been nationally 
prosperous and self-possessed. But when she arro- 
gantly came over here, dressed in red-coats, marching 
to rich and costly music, she found that victory was 
destined to be on the side of her opponents. 

But this same victory of ours brought us a mighty 
defeat. We earned our "independence," but found, 
alas ! that we were masters of England not only, but 
also of millions of slaves. And that sad success was 
the germ of our present full-orbed defeats. As a nation 
we have gone on with this terrible success until it has 
put an extinguisher upon the effulgent light of our 
Union. Almost are we gone nationally down into the 
martyr's sepulcher ! Almost are hearth-stone enemies 
ready to roll a great stone against its mouth ! But 
America dead and in the martyr's tomb, with the stone 
of adversity rolled against its mouth, is more mighty 
and more triumphant than when tea went overboard in 
Boston. 

As a nation we must be forced into court and arbi- 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 1 1 

trarily condemned. The cross of sorrow must be put 
on the Northern shoulder, and the whole country must 
be led up to the summit of Calvary ! All are now slowly 
going thither. We shall be nailed to the cross, and 
two thieves will be executed with us. (There will be 
no difficulty in finding a couple.) Then we shall be 
taken down, and the countries of Europe about the 
foot of our cross will say : " We told you so — we 
expected it. We have argued it and written it for the 
last half century, that such a Republic as yours, such a 
loosely constituted democracy, could not and would not 
long exist." Then we shall be carried away, placed in 
the earth — only for a day ! Then will angel-princi- 
ples roll away this vast political obstruction, which 
keeps the people in the darkness of Hades and the 
misery of Gehenna. Behold we shall come forth ! And 
then the nations of the world, like the old officers of 
Rome, will be struck with blindness and paralysis. 
America will come forth — clad in white — purified, 
redeemed, transformed, free ! Our greatest national 
success — which gave us the power to overthrow the 
mastery of England — gave us also mastery over mil- 
lions of Africans. That success is to-day teaching us 
an expensive and desperate lesson, and we are slow in 
learning it. 

God, the greatest central good in the Universe, is 
giving us our best development and our highest victo- 
ries through disappointments, military defeats, and 
political adversities. Minds, not perceiving this truth, 
are cast down. They walk sadly in the vale of tears. 
They live daily in bondage to a fearful, soul-sickening 
sorrow. Oh, I pity those sightless editors of innu- 



12 MORNING LECTURES. 

merable papers — those atheistic men who move and 
float along in and with the rough world "just as they 
find it" — minds that see nothing higher and-feel nothing 
better than the hum-drum of diurnal events. I do not 
wonder that they oppose and decry the Government, 
and set themselves against the administration of the 
Government. All the atheistic criticisms of our coun- 
trymen are so many moral stumbling-blocks in the 
pathway toward perdition. Banking men contemplate 
the demolition of their capital. Churches and colleges, 
and the institutions of common education, are wrapped 
up with the nation's commercial machinery. The 
important men, who support these institutions, are not 
lifted by their faith in Christianity high enough above 
circumstances to see that America is destined to go 
down through the Gulf Stream, then put out into the 
cold water, and at last outsail all the storms of capes 
and gulfs, and finally reach the clear open sea of 
boundless liberty. They do not believe in God, and 
they are accordingly cast down. And yet they go to 
their churches, they hear beautiful music, utter formal 
prayers, listen to expensive orthodox sermons that 
are filled with grammar and rhetoric, and with very 
beautiful allusions to the Savior and his exemplary 
life; but when they go home from their carpeted 
churches, they are the same cast-down, hopeless, athe- 
istical persons they were before they assembled for 
worship. A hopeful, buoyant, and honorable man or 
woman is so in spite of his or her religious creed. 

Look at mankind's defeats and successes in Science. 
We have a beautiful science of anatomy — a knowledge 
of all the bones that enter into the framework of the 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 13 

human being, or of the lower organizations. Do you 
suppose that a healthy man would ever have concerned 
himself with the items of his structure ? Never ! Per- 
fect success in health would have kept the world in 
total ignorance of its anatomy and physiology. Dis- 
ease has been our blessing ! It strikes at the bone. 
Then comes the surgeon with his scalpel, separating 
parts and revealing structure, and thus he becomes a 
learned man : next he teaches anatomy to the classes, 
and then the classes go out, and thus a true education 
finally filters through the interstices of all human expe- 
rience. And to-day almost every person knows that 
he has 247 bones in his body, and that woman is con- 
stituted precisely the same; and that the doctrine that 
man lost a rib originally is just as true as any other 
ancient myth — that is to say, in its external sense, not 
true at all. 

Then came the beautiful knowledge of physiology. 
This science is now one of the useful ornaments of a 
gentleman's education. Ladies, also, have, begun to 
acquire great riches in the direction of organs and 
functions. Disease has been the world's great teacher. 
People just begin to discover that there are such things 
as nerves ! They have been long told by physicians 
that there were such conductors ; but now they know 
the thrilling fact. Old sturdy Britons and Northern 
lords knew nothing of nerves. Read their books, and 
you will find scarcely an allusion to such impressible 
structures. A nation had to become sick — the whole 
people had to be cast down in sorrow — before man's 
mind could be moved to seek out knowledge of that 
mysterious system which connects his brain with all 



14 MORNING LECTURES. 

his senses, and the senses with the whole universe 
without. 

Insanity, too, had to exist before phrenology could 
be practically developed and demonstrated. Mental 
diseases had to abound, and crime in its most mis- 
chievous forms also, before phrenology became the 
world's absolute necessity. The science is the child 
of research and misfortune, and for this reason phre- 
nology has conquered much ignorance, and has given 
men practical knowledge of themselves. 

Again, mankind were obliged to be afflicted and 
defeated with sickness in the spirit, moral prostrations, 
vices, and discords. There had to be swearing, pro- 
fanity of various kinds, and licentiousness also, before 
men would seek out the great developments of music, 
art, religion — those higher blessings which enter into 
the spiritual education and happiness of the world. It 
was necessary that the world should suffer from its 
ignorance and defeats before men could be induced to 
inquire concerning the spiritual laws and inner princi- 
ples of their existence. Men who had never seen or 
experienced any such evils as larceny, incendiarism, or 
murder, would never hare concerned themselves with 
virtue, with truth, and with legal agents and instru- 
mentalities by which virtue and truth are advocated, 
vindicated, and developed. Great saving constructive 
truths would never have appeared to the human mind 
were it not for the discords of society and the dire dis- 
eases of individuals. • 

The best knowledge in the world is attributable to 
the world's ignorance. Misfortune is esteemed by 
Divinity of as much value as success. Defeat is just 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. lj 

as truly a part of God's great system as victory. A'' ice 
is a portion of the system — it is not an accident — for it 
brings victories as well as virtues. I verily believe 
this country's salvation is inseparable from the colossal 
lies which decorate the throne of Jefferson Davis. How 
could it be otherwise? How could the political crab- 
sterians of this country discover that the millions who 
have been working for nothing in the South, are children 
of God and the victims of wrong political circum- 
stances, were it not for the moral, political, social, and 
civil degradations which those same circumstances have 
developed among the whites ? White ninnies and black 
picaninnies walk side by side, and all parties are 
moving on the road leading to an equal success 
through desperate and blood-stained defeats. 

Do you suppose that Abraham Lincoln would have 
felt the " military necessity" which prompted his first 
of January edict,- if our armies had been successful six 
months before? The civilized world looks at the brave, 
strong, powerful North, and is amazed at its de- 
feats. But the future will look upon those weeks and 
months of our national agony and despair with awe, 
gratitude, and tlnnksgiving. The « military neces- 
sity" of the 1st of January, 1863, will beget and 
become a " moral necessity." 

Already the people of the North are opening their 
hearts to the conception that the black man is able and 
anxious to defend the rights of the white man. " This 
is a white man's war," said the proud, successful 
Northmen. " We will fight our own battles, win our 
own victories, and obtain much credit in the political 
heaven for achieving all this sublime success." Our 



16 MORNING LECTURES. 

private merchants and our public ministers, as with one 
voice, said : " We shall have the glorious honor of 
beholding a white man's laurel on the brow of the 
potential North. 7 ' Well, we have learned, sadly enough, 
that all this boasting and presumption, this pedantry 
and heartless assumption of power, has been forced 
down with its knees in the dust. The whole people see 
that further humiliations are in store before real vie- 
tory can crown the brow of the North ; >and so seeing, 
they are imperceptibly converted to a higher religion 
than the churches can impart. I know that a few 
churches begin to recognize this ; but did they recog- 
nize it at the start ? No ! Ministers have been edu- 
cated by this war as much as merchants, bankers, 
farmers, and mechanics. Brigadier-Generals know no 
more about the future than does the private warrior 
who went bravely forth from the mechanic's shop, the 
factory, or the field, bearing the musket snugly against 
his shoulder, and groaning (sometimes with homesick, 
despairiiigthoughts,) under the weight of his overloaded 
knapsaqk. But he knows as much, thinks as clearly, 
feels as much true patriotism as do the Brigadiers 
and Major-Generals who ride with plumes along the 
front, " the observed of all observers " — all being edu- 
cated alike ; all gone to school together. 

Old theology teaches persons who go through these 
long avenues on to battle, that if they have not 
accepted Christ and the means of salvation, they will 
go down to endless night. Bm the divine truth of 
Nature (which is God's only gospel) speaking deep 
down in the soul of such persons, causes them to say, 
"I do not believe it." The minister says, "That 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 17 

is Satan's voice." Intuition, however, takes the 
responsibility, and so .the soldier, without conversion, 
marches on to battle. He vaguely, yet strongly feels, 
in his deepest soul, that if he should die in the midst 
of carnage, fighting for his flag and the country, the 
duty which he is performing and the motive which 
actuates him will be equal to the merits of Christ. So 
he practically sees the goodness of God, and believes 
in his own salvation. And what is more curious, his 
mother at home believes it also. She says : " To be 
sure, Charles never went to church ; he seemed to be 
irreligious on Sundays ; but he was better than most 
young men, and, though he was a little wild, yet he 
died doing his duty, bravely and fearlessly at the can- 
non's mouth ; and I know that our Savior is very mer- 
ciful, and though he was not 'converted,' as was 
supposed, no doubt God, who seeth the falling sparrow, 
will take him home to glory." 

That is the great gospel of Mother Nature ! That 
is the voice of the living God speaking higher than 
theology, and above all the superstitions which crowd 
the mother's mind. Let us pray that all mothers — 
when the deep sorrow comes to the heart — may have 
the great joy of believing truth direct from Deity. 
Notwithstanding his waywardness, his evils, imperfec- 
tions, cruelties at home, negligence even — still, over all 
and through all, is the intuitive belief that the heavens 
open and receive the soldier-son. That, I say, is the 
word of God speaking in the woman's heart in the cool 
of the day, when sorrow presses heavily, when the wine 
of truth comes bleedingly out of her spirit. 

But let a mother go on with social and worldly 



18 MORNING LECTURES. 

success — let her feel the pressure of no great sorrow — 
and her theology will be a pampered idol. She will 
oppose the Reformer and sneer at the Spiritualist. She 
does not believe in the war ; or, if she does, it is with 
hate, like the politicians. But let a weighty sorrow 
come to her heart, and forthwith she rises up into a 
beautiful transformation of spirit ; and then from igno- 
rance she goes to knowledge, from theology to wisdom, 
from despair to hope, from doubt to faith, from defeat 
to victory. 

For all these reasons I pity a village that has never 
had a mob. Go into a Connecticut town that has never 
had anything to disturb it worse than a few boys steal- 
ing melons in the summer time, or some dogs that kill 
the sheep — suppose no great disturbance, no deep agi- 
tation, had come to that town — behold the utter 
imbecility there in regard to the great moving princi- 
ples of the world ! They read old newspapers that 
were published half a century ago, edited by persons 
who got their education one hundred years ago, and 
who taught things that are two and a half centuries 
old. They own the oldest books, which contain the 
oldest sermons and inculcate the poorest thoughts. 
They read the Bible with the oldest pair of spectacles 
in the house, and they judge of modern things through 
the Testaments, portions of which are at least three 
thousand years behind the age. 

Now look at the city or village that has been stir- 
red. Some reformatory man went there, who aroused 
the passions and prejudices of the people. They were 
obliged to hunt up their unmarketable eggs to express 
their profound disgust with the reformer's sentiments. 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 19 

Perhaps he was an Anti-slavery man, or a Woman's 
Rights speaker, or some thorough-going temperance 
reformer, or — which is still more dreadful — some long- 
haired and large-brained Spiritualist. The community 
so visited has received a shock, a vibration, a move- 
ment from its center, which is the commencement of its 
success in development. 

Now take this country. The-iron-clads and the 
Monitors that are to go forth to victory, have come out 
of defeats. In Hampton Roads, in sight of Fortress 
Monroe, the Merrimac had to come. She was the 
Confederate's victory. But we had to be defeated 
before a Monitor could come out of these machine- 
shops — freighted with prodigious strength, with 
almighty energy — blasting that invention of the Con- 
federates in its very eyes, and giving such a demonstra- 
tion of power as to alarm the North with its own 
success. Do you not also* see that the Monitor had to 
die, to sink, before future Monitors would be made 
impervious to tempests and waves ? Let her go ; let 
her bravely sink. " It is but to another sea." The 
people rise up to a more perfect work. Our engineers, 
our machinists, our scientific men, our inventors — all 
spring like angels of light to the rescue ! Give us 
defeat, not only in Hampton Roads, but also near Cape 
Hatteras ! 

Now, what has Disease done ? It has brought the 
sciences of Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Therapeu- 
tics — these volumes of education upon which scientific 
and school men pride themselves. And what has been 
the result? The expansion of useful knowledge among 
the people, urging them to overcome the causes of dis- 



20 MORNING LECTURES. 

ease and to learn the simple ways of Health. There is^ 
consequently, only about one person in every twenty- 
three really sick at any one time. The twenty-two are 
not perfectly well — that is too much for the terrestrial 
sphere ; but there is only one of the twenty-three who 
is prostrated, or silent, white, and waiting at the 
golden gate of the Summer-Land. So that, at this 
moment, while I am, speaking to you, there are not more 
than 1,370,000 persons actually sick in America. 
According to the last census there were about 
32,000,000 persons in the United States ; and only about 
one in every twenty-three was prostrated by disease 
Why, the world is almost perfectly healthy— just sick- 
ness and suffering enough to keep us busy and on the 
high road to victorious Science. 

The defeats of the Allopathic system — what have 
they led to ? Why, they have led, through salivation, 
to salvation ! Behold those crystal colleges, devoted 
to higher medical education, teaching the system of 
Hahnemann, or the system of Priesnitz, or both, and 
the system of Franklin — electricity, and the system of 
Mesmer — magnetism, and next the system of God — 

INDEPENDENCE OF ALL MEDICINE ! 

Let us thank all whp populate heaven for our 
defeats, diseases, accidents, and disappointments. Why, 
Bull Run was but the commencement of that race which 
shall not stop until the golden summits of Liberty are 
fully attained! We have only "gone around Robin 
Hood's barn." There is vastly more courage and real 
success in backing out of fire than there is in going 
uselessly into it and dying foolishly. We had strength 
and wisdom enough to retreat when disaster was upon 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 21 

us. There was a Divinity shaping our ends — teaching 
us that Freedom is the moral as well as the military 
necessity of America's inhabitants. 

Men in business do not arise to the true moral 
position. They cannot do it until they are bankrupt, 
and they may, therefore, soon become so. What makes ' 
slavery so popular at the South ? Because of its great 
mercantile, and commercial, and local advantages, and 
not because of its moral, spiritual, and political advan- 
tages. It is popular because men and women, resting 
in the lap of luxury, can get money without earning it, 
can whip or hire it done, and out of the affliction of 
othej^ realize two or three hundred per cent, on their 
hereditary investment. "That is the reason why it is 
popular. Men are not constituted to continue long in 
that which brings bankruptcy. The slaves of the 
South have earned the weajth of the South. Many 
great folks who live in luxury in the North, are trem- 
bling lest these multiplied and triple-fold taxes will 
sweep away their fortunes and leave them at the altar 
of repentance. Many such persons tremble because 
they are living on the earnings of slaves. Men who 
have amassed large estates by th-e misfortunes and vic- 
timizations of the black people, have had the most 
miserable " success." Oh, what a desperate victory ! 
It is dreadful, direful, devilful, hellful — damnation is 
the result! Every such estate will melt like a moun- 
tain of ice before the summer sun. 

Before this war commenced many persons who were 
unfaithful to the ordinary obligations of truth became 
tangled up with and woven into this great national 
trouble. They ripened on the very sorrows and sick- 



22 MORNING LECTURES. 

nesses and slaveries of the people. Let the moneyed 
institutions groan ! It is an honest symptom of coming 
success for Truth and Justice — but remember, such suc- 
cess is coming through bankruptcy, through painful 
defeats! It is very gratifying to go into business and 
obtain money — mere animal excitement and happiness 
— have credit, so that no man questions you, with all 
your drafts instantly honored. Such a man does not 
care to attend Progressive Meetings. He goes to a pop- 
ular church every Sunday, where it is only necessary to 
pay and keep still. But when the Sun of Righteousness 
comes over the horizon of disasters and melts away .all 
his property, and when his great wealth floats do v i 
into the little rivulets of other individual possessions, 
then he goes in haste to his minister ; he is spiritually 
sick, is alarmed for his soul, and begins to inquire the 
shortest way to the residence of the Holy Ghost. Do 
we not read in the New Testament that the young man 
was " very sorrowful, because he had great posses- 
sions" ? He was materially successful — that was the 
hidden secret — so successful, indeed, that he was 
defeated every moment. 

The man who is most unhappy, restless, defeated, 
is the man who appears to be in the midst of plenty and 
opulence. I wish mankind could see this immutable 
truth more clearly. They would then never become 
bankrupt. But not seeing it, they yield themselves to 
discord, to disappointment, and die with a thunder- 
stroke of Fate ! 

But a true Spiritualist cannot be cast down. He 
cannot be thrown into these vales of disappointment. 
No matter where he is, or in what he is laudably 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 23 

engaged, he finds that the eternal principles of the uni- 
verse are filled with God's loving spirit, and in them 
he knows that he is safe, and beyond the possibility of 
defeat. 

It is philosophical to believe in the benefits of ; 
defeats. The shipwrecked mariner contributes by his 
disaster just so much toward making all other ships 
safer. The Great Eastern had mishap after mishap in 
order that vessels hereafter should not be so ambitious 
in size, but more secure. Every accident on a railroad 
is but another step toward expedition and safety. 

Seeing all this, I wonder how men can live or die 
worshiping the idol of theology, or believing in any 
creed in Christendom. I wonder not that they are 
mentally prostrated, with only what they call " faith' 5 
to give them a glimmering of rest just before the tomb- 
gate opens to receive them. They go down into the 
grave, and friends write on their tombstones that, 
when the angel comes and the trumpet sounds, then 
there will be a resurrection. But the true Spiritualist 
sees that there is no sepulcher, no tomb ; that the 
world is regulated without accidents, and that death is 
nothing but a gentle " defeat," which excludes the 
cypress and includes the laurel. Flowers bloom o'er 
the death-bed of that mind which sees God's smiles 
behind frowning clouds and tempests. The Christian's 
" hope" and this knowledge among Spiritualists are the 
same in their effect upon the sentiments. When the 
Christian feels the "faith" which is peculiar to the 
Spiritualism of Christianity and identical with the 
knowledge of Spiritualism in these days, it is the light 
of a common Deity speaking through the intuitions and 



24 MORNING LECTURES. 

the moral faculties, saying to the prostrated one: 
" Thou shalt live beyond the tomb." 

" The Summer-Land is not afar off. It is environ- 
ing this world of ours, encasing it as the general air. 
It surrounds this world on all sides, so that, whether 
pointing up at noonday or at midnight, you point 
toward your home which is " eternal in the heavens." 
It is through the narrow, strait gate of defeat and 
of death, but it deepens into unutterable splendor and 
undying exhibitions of infinitude. That world hovers 
all around this world of winter, even as the golden era 
of peace is ready to pervade this terrible era of war. 

War is the production of the cellar-kitchen of 
human nationality and progress. It never comes from 
the upper chambers in the temple of human growth. 
It is natural to have war in the basement of our life. 
There war is perfectly natural ; not outside of God's 
providence, but as much in it as is the highest and most 
beautiful flower of peace. 

The doctrine that you are fighting the devil when 
you are favoring the Deity, is worthy only of low and 
uneducated minds. Whichever way you work, .you 
work for the ultimate glory of the universal systein. 
God is in it. I mean by " God/' the highest Truth, 
the highest Principle, the highest Virtue, the highest 
idea of whatsoever is Central and Perfect. The embo- 
diment of these conceptions — the crystallization of all 
high thoughts and intuitions — is " God." God may be 
a monster to one in a monstrous state of mind. He is 
a heathen God to the heathen mind. He is a God of 
battle to the Major-general, but always a God of peace 
to " the pure in heart." 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 25 

We have acquired a larger vision, and see princi- 
ples in their grand, boundless operation, breaking out 
of the Infinite bosom with great success, which come 
from fine personal spasms and the awful experiences of 
rough public defeats. When men learn that war is to 
die, they will also learn that disease is to die ; but 
while they believe that war is an inevitable part of 
human society and progress, and " will continue through 
all the cycles of human history," they then teach a des- 
perate error, and are defeated through their lessons of 
faith in God and Humanity. Their misery, their 
despondendy, their downcast hearts, amd their deploring 
spirits, will constitute their best teachers ; but we 
believe that the time will come when they will attain 
to the summit of a better conviction, and say : " Sin 
abounded, that grace might much more abound;" dis- 
cord, that harmony might come ; ignorance, that know- 
ledge might bloom and blossom as the rose ; misfor- 
tune, that success could come ; death, that immortality 
could crown the life of man; the sepulcher being 
necessary for the new truth, and the stone necessary to 
keep it entombed until the time should arrive for its 
out-bursting development. Behold ! defeat is crowned 
at length with victory. The stone is rolled away, 
truth arises, and those who stand guard over it say, 
"Nay, this was buried, and it may now come forth." 

Do you not feel thankful that the Romans came into 
England, and that when they found the old ancient 
Britons there they straightway put those Britons in 
bondage? What would England be to-day if it" had 
not been for the defeat of those Britons and for the 
success of the Romans, and the Saxons, and the Nor- 
2 



26 MORNING LECTURES. 

mans. Their defeat was necessary for that great, pow- 
erful, commercial, arrogant nation, which to-day is 
giving America her finest lesson. It is the lesson of 
national consolidation — extending the front of educa- 
tion, of art, of commerce, and of liberty, though 
through a monarchial system. She became more lib- 
eral than Rome, though Rome was a republic. Whal 
kind of a republic? A republic for those who had 
arms to defend themselves against the Goths and the 
Vandals. It was not the Liberty, the high republic, 
which gives to every man and woman an expression. 
America, to-day, appears as a great success out of the 
defeats of these elder nations. England is not a per- 
fect republic, because England came from ancestors 
who taught the mouarchial system. She inherits the 
forces and features of the past. 

But America threw off that hereditary disaster, and 
out of the defeats of the Past she is urging forward the 
victory of the Present. Suppose that persecution had 
never reached those old Dissenters in Nottingham, in 
England — suppose that persecution had never driven 
them to Holland — what would have become of Ply- 
mouth Rock ? The Pilgrims laid the foundation for 
he Puritanic temple of perpendicular righteousness, . 
nd of Yankee chicanery and machinery as well. , 
otherwise the temple could never have been erected, 
rovernor Bradford were a myth, had it npt been for ; 
ie great persecutions and the bitter defeats which 
•ose early Dissenters experienced. Defeats drove 
them from Nottingham to Holland, and thence, in the 
midst of their physical embarrassments and great priva- 
tions, they came all the way across the Atlantic to the 



. • 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 27 

Western shore. Plymouth Rock is the victory of 
many defeats and misfortunes. But the descendants 
of that Rock are destined to develop the palladium of 
universal Freedom, and to make the immortal edict of 
Emancipation a moral as well as a military necessity. 



28 MORNING LECTURES. 



THE WORLD'S TRUE REDEEMER. 



«* Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." 

The beautiful and sublime truths imparted by the 
Harmouial Dispensation, will hereafter appear through 
lips more touched by the Promethean fire — more 
blessed by the enchanting powers of divine eloquence. 
My mission at present seems to be to utter, in plain 
style and understandable language, new lessons in 
spiritual progress, and to explain and enforce old 
lessons in a new and more practical, useful, soul- 
exalting, body-saving form. 

I find a great many social and religious sewers in 
fashionable homes that need to be thoroughly cleansed ; 
and one to enter upon such a labor must take off kid- 
gloves and put on corduroy over-alls. And hence, 
although it is hardly the form accepted in the so-styled 
best circles, (where dress passes par, and truth is 
quoted at fifty per cent, discount,) yet for the accom- 
plishment of important ends in the day and hour and 
minute in which we breathe, such methods and dresses, 
and such unvarnished presentations of truth, are 
deemed expedient and appropriate. Therefore, as 
there are so many blessed witnesses to come after me, 
who will bring to you the clearly-defined pictures and 
express the highest melody of progressive truth, there 



THE WORLD'S TRUE REDEEMER. 29 

seems to be for me the rougher labor of laying the 
granite foundation on which the temple of strong, vig- 
orous Freedom, and of sturdy thought, can be planted 
and erected in safety as upon the everlasting hills. 

I come before you at this time with the question, 
u Who — What is the world's true Redeemer ?" 

A redeemer is one who takes up a circulation that 
has had a very wide diffusion on the credit system. 
The popular theory is that, from the first, mankind 
have been doing a credit business with the kingdom of 
heaven ; that the first thing we did as a race was to 
run into an everlasting, deadly, and diabolical debt 
with the Divine government, which is under the man- 
agement and administration of that wifeless and melan- 
choly trinity of co-equal gods — Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost. Hence, according to this theory, the world 
needs some person, or thing, or principle, or transub- 
stantiation, to liquidate this solid and solemn condition 
of things, and thus put mankind again on " interceding 
ground" — on the basis of a possible credit and accept- 
ance at the bar of the Eternal in the heavens. 

This, I repeat, is the general theory among so- 
called Christians. In searching human history, how- 
ever, we find this popular theory to be nothing more 
than a hypothesis, based on Hebrew mythology and 
superstition; But this Hebrew mythology was origi- 
nated in a genuine spiritual perception — crude, indis- 
tinct, and unphilosophical, but a perfect truth in 
germ — that, in the great future, mankind would come 
individually to realize that they were full of imperfec- 
tions and weaknesses, and needed a saving power, a 
redemptive personage, an uplifting energy, a purifying 



30 MORNING LECTURES. 

principle. Thus originated the hypothesis of a per- 
sonal Savior. What was first a mere speculation, at 
last became established as a positive fact. 

The beauty and boundless catholicity of the Har- 
monial Dispensation are seen in the fact that, in freely 
and fearlessly sounding the deeps of all human history, 
its teachers come at last to accept the spiritual essence 
of all opinions in the world's religious creeds. They 
discover that in all things there is a sovereign, eternal 
truth, and their business seems to be, in part, to take 
off the coating and clear away the rubbish of the 
past — to divest history and mythology and experience 
of adhering superstitions, and thus aid to exhibit the 
majesty and harmonious perfections of the divine gov- 
ernment, in its non-supernatural, inimitable, eternal 
beauty. 

Hence we begin by rejecting the word " Redeemer," 
because it is a term developed by an hypothesis which 
is in itself erroneous. We discover that mankind do 
not stand in any such debit-and-credit relation to the 
kingdom of heaven. We are not doing a day-book 
and ledger business with God and Nature. Every 
instant of time the account in the " book of life" is 
balanced. The Bible is paper, and on the church theory 
jit certainly is a paper basis of credit. Politicians and 
; jnerchants, bankers and corporations, profess to dread 
and deplore this universal expansion of paper cur- 
i rency. Indeed ! Then why do they not dread and 
equally deplore it in the religion of the world ? It is 
nothing but paper currency in the popular churches, 
and much of it is exceedingly spurious at that. Multi- 
tudes of early Scriptures were counterfeits. This fact 



• THE WORLD'S TRUE REDEEMER. 3i 

is inseparable from the history of all past negotiations 
on this paper basis in religion. In the Council of Nice 
the manuscripts which were rejected would make more 
than two such Bibles as are read in the churches of 
New York city. Those scriptures were repudiated as 
counterfeit representations of the real paper currency 
which it was supposed God had authorized to be dif- 
fused among mankind. On this theory the Divine 
government must have been exceedingly limited in' 
suitable material for specie ! The pavements of Heaven 
must have consumed all the gold and other metal they 
had on hand. The New Jerusalem, according to that 
old opinion, was so expensive in its metallic basis and 
ornamentations that the Trinity could not afford a 
specie basis for religion and morality. Of course they 
were obliged to issue several varieties of paper cur- 
rency, and these are what men call the " Old and New 
Testaments" — legal tender notes, and notes promissory 
and on mortgages. 

Now I ask, Why not be as reasonable in religion, 
theology, and spiritual necessities, as in this common 
affair of banking and of mercantile business ? The 
answer is that men dare to use their reason, their com- 
mon sense, and their educational sense as well, in all 
matters pertaining to the actualities of outward life, 
and the* same men have resolved to be as nearly con- 
summate block-heads and stumbling-blocks in matters 
of religion, as they can possibly be and still maintain a 
reputation for standing at the front of popular educa- 
tion, good manners, and good breeding. This univer- 
sal acceptance of Reason on all practical questions, and 
this universal rejection of the same sovereign power on 



32 MORNING LECTURES. • 

all questions in religion and spirituality, constitutes one 
of the most astonishing anomalies, one of the most con- 
summate illustrations'of imbecility, that ever started 
this side of the upward " Fall" of the first human pair. 

This doctrine of doing all worldly business on what 
is termed " a paper basis" is, at the present time, quite 
unpopular. (It is not unpopular with me. I like it, 
and believe it will supersede the metals.) But in the 
world at large the plan is beginning to be rejected. 
Consequently, one of these days the same spirit of 
" repudiation" will strike into the organizations of 
religion. Then the kingdom of heaven will be appealed 
to — through vigorous prayers — for an exhibition of its 
supposed specie basis. 

Is it not remarkable that people reject the idea of 
Progress in religion, in all the spiritual principles of 
human society, and at the same time accept it on almost 
every other subject in the domain of human life? It is 
everywhere held that man must not attempt to investi- 
gate the spiritual with his Reason. But, thank heaven ! v 
Bishop Colenso has had the sublime audacity, in the 
midst of all his labors in heathendom, to make sound- 
ings down through the so-called infallible Pentateuch. 
He found and published to mankind, that the bottom 
had fallen out long before it was ever put in — that is, 
he broadly intimates that Moses is historically a myth. 
According to the history, the chronology, the mathe- 
matics of .the Bible, good old Moses did not personally 
exist. But we find that in the spiritual history of the 
world the great Law-maker did live and does exist. 
This interior reality is all that is necessary for man- 
kind. It is of little consequence, for example, whether 



THE WORLD'S TRUE REDEEMER. 33 

" Faith, Hope, and Charity, 55 were three young women, 
excessively beautiful, in first-rate health, with fine 
digestion, good teeth, fine hair, and well acquainted 
with the wants of the human heart, or whether they 
were and are merely artistic personifications of interior 
sentiments and natural human necessities. It matters 
little ; it matters not at all. The point is this : are 
they faithful representatives of actual principles and 
needs in the constitution of the human soul ? All the 
world say " Yea," and therefore, " Hope, Faith, and 
Charity, 5 ' are idolized images in our parlors — beautiful 
goddesses for the adoring soul to gaze upon — repre- 
sentatives of the internal, the eternal, and ever-present 
necessities of the human spirit — hope, faith, charity ! 

So Moses is related forever to the spiritual life and 
history of the human world. So is Jesus a spiritual 
fact — independent of history, mathematics, chronology, 
and the Bible. Whether they lived or did not live, is 
of little moment. It will be of little profit to persons 
who live so near the summit of the nineteenth century 
to make inquiries as to whether certain historical cha- 
racters ever lived or not. Some minds seem to think 
that, because the old systems are so pervious to the 
waves of thought and investigation, therefore old 
theology holds no essential truth. Many ministers are 
thus troubled. The miserable gentlemen ! They are 
affrighted at Bishop Colenso because they know nothing 
of essential Spiritualism. They know nothing what- 
ever of the fundamental principles of the Harmonial 
Philosophy, by which the essentials of all things are 
saved ; so that nothing worth saving is lost' in history, 
theology, or mythology. If the world had more real 
2* 



34 MORNING LECTURES. 

intelligent, scientific spirituality in its religion — in its 
apprehensions of religion — it would never tremble if 
the bishops and priests of all countries came out en 
masse to-morrow and declared that the Bible itself, 
from end to end — in its literature, meanings, princi- 
ples, and applications — was nothing but a worthless 
" paper currency" bequeathed to mankind through the 
Jewish Rabbi and early Christian Fathers, who firmly 
believed in their own honestly mistaken judgments and 
superstitions. 

No : give men more knowledge of real spiritual 
truth, teach them of the philosophical depths of the 
immortal spirit, and they will have no more silly fears 
and hysterical tremblings lest the Bible should disap- 
pear and all Testaments be swept from the face of the 
earth. Suppose a great consuming fire should sweep 
across the prairies of the West and burn all the har- 
vests that are garnered — with their fifteen to twenty- 
five miles of wheat and corn preserved in appropriate 
buildings — would the world despair of future cereal 
harvests? Would farmers and laborers never hope 
and believe that other corn-fields would again rustle in 
harmony with the music of the heavens? Would 
mothers and farming-maids never again look with faitk 
for great thrift and burly health flowing up from the 
under-world, which brings in the new shocks of corn 
and fills the familiar scene with the affluence of new 
harvests ? No, no ! " Hope springs eternal in the 
human breast." The soul of the world would still feel 
assurance of future abundance. The summer comes, 
and with it come also those beautiful invigorating 
showers which awaken the slumbering principles of 



THE WORLD'S TRUE REDEEMER. 35 

» 

vegetation, and once more they bring oceans of food for 
the waiting millions, and all are fed. 

So, also, if the present great spiritual and histori- 
cal criticisms should sweep violently over the earth — 
rolling like the flood of Noah, sweeping Bibles and all 
books on other subjects wholly out of the world — 
nevertheless the men and women who feel the depths 
of these spiritual truths would not for one moment 
tremble or be cast down, except, perhaps, in a passing 
sorrow for the loss of so much property, representative 
of the industry and education of the past — for it would 
indeed be saddening to behold the destruction of the 
labors of those who have lived before us, and who have 
worked faithfully both night and day for years and 
centuries. The regret on this point would be deep, 
universal, and sorrowful ; but there would be no 
spiritual trembling or vague fear ; for very soon the 
divine harvests of Ideas would come again, more 
spiritual books than ever, and far better Testaments 
of truth, would unfold on the innumerable trees of 
human life. Singular, therefore, is it not, that men do 
not seek to comprehend and apply the law of Progress 
in their theologies and religion ? It is because they 
fear, from the mere influence of their education, to use 
that sublimest power, the harmony of all the facul- 
ties — Reason. 

If there was ever a flower from the soil of heaven 
planted in the garden of the human soul, blooming with 
an ever-increasing beauty and with an eternal fra- 
grance, it is Reason. Men instinctively dread the 
absence of it in their children and in themselves ; but 
nothing human ever dreads or deplores its presence. 



36 MORNING LECTURES. 

I 

The most reasonable person is the one you are inclined 
to love most. Eeason always implies harmony of the 
faculties, for it receives happy contributions from all 
of the affections and sentiments. Reason, in this high 
sense, does not merely mean the power to think and 
talk logically from premises to conclusion, or legiti- 
mately to go in reflection from the outside to the center. 
It means the power to see not only outward facts, but 
the essential principles, also, by which alone the real 
significance of the facts can be comprehended. It is 
the German method. It begins at the heart of things, 
with fundamental Nature — is deductive, and goes thence 
outwardly, like God, through all the infinite spaces. 
God does not live and think on the surface of the uni- 
verse as Bacon did. The Divine is not strictly an 
inductive philosopher. Every man of reason and every 
woman of intuition knows that God is in the deepest 
Heart — an inexhaustible fountain of Love, as well as 
of Wisdom — expanding through all that illimitable 
structure which we call " the physical universe." 

Now God's method of living in the universe is the 
method of Reason in mankind. Rooting itself in Intui- 
tion, starting up with the lightning flash of thought, 
and with often an inexpressible conviction of what is 
and what is not true — such is Reason, blooming over . 
the summits of the thinking and contemplative facul- 
ties — the first born, the last born — the perfect grouping 
of all the elements and attributes that go to make up 
the immortal human mind. 

And yet men dare not trust Reason in religion ! 
Behold how all the pulpitarians and crabsterians use 
Reason to prove that Reason is not to be trusted ! Go 



THE WORLD S TRUE REDEEMER. 37 

to our logical clergymen — many of them arc tolerably 
well-educated in logic — and hear how they habitually 
employ Reason, almost like thoroughly trained law- 
yers, to prove that Reason is most treacherous and 
unreasonable, and that it is unworthy of consultation in 
the presence of the Word of God ! 

Now I stand before you to announce the necessity 
of progress in the world's religion, and hence my sub- 
ject is : " The World's True Redeemer." 

I. In the first place I affirm that there is implanted 
in man a natural desire for knowledge. Men say that 
true human education did not begin until Christianity 
was perfectly established. It is astonishing that they 
dare so assert, when it is known that Egypt and 
Greece blossomed with institutions of learning, which 
have not been exceeded by anything educational in the 
present century — only we have more of it diffused 
among the people, and hence have made great progress 
in the adaptation of true education to human necessi- 
ties. But in the fundamental germs of enlightenment 
and civilization the world was largely supplied centu- 
ries before Christianity was established. 

I repeat^ men desire Knowledge. They have an 
' implanted desire to know more ; they dread ignorance, 
and they repel with indignation that which is a recog- 
nized discredit to the Reason with which they are 
endowed. I know a perfectly honest, healthy, splen- 
did-looking, wealthy proprietor of many whale-ships, 
who very frequently blushes because he is not educated. 
He began in the cabin, next went before the mast, and 
then became second mate, and so on and up until he 
went as sole master of his vessel. At last he became 



38 MORNING LECTURES. 

the proprietor of many whaling-ships and store-houses. 
He staid at home in his comfortable mansion by the 
sea, and saw his many ships sail out and return to port, 
bringing him wealth and luxury ; but he knew nothing 
of French, nothing of Greek and Hebrew, and so he 
fancied, as he was not educated in spiritual principles, 
that he was shamefully destitute of education. He had 
never acquired the power of flourishing his pen, so that 
he could not even write his own name very well. But 
that man was most trustworthy. He was the trusted 
friend of every man who needed his assistance and his 
benefactions. Still he would not accept the smallest 
public office in his native town, nor assist in adjusting 
public affairs, just because he was consciously deficient 
in the rudiments of Education. So he blushed and 
remained at home, or rode quietly out in his carriage, 
looking equal to any man that walks in the halls of 
Congress. Thus the wealthy sailor lived, and at last 
went completely out of sight in the midst of great accu- 
mulations of wealth — all because he knew that he was 
not educated ! I relate this case to show that people 
naturally repel ignorance, and that most persons blush 
when they know that they are not well-informed and 
accomplished. It is a voice illustrating the natural 
desire of the human heart for Knowledge. 

Now who shall say that Knowledge shall not travel 
into religious matters, as well as into navigation, into 
matters of business, into the banking arrangements, 
chemistry, the actual or the speculative sciences ? The 
desire for Knowledge with reference to spiritual things 
is just as powerful as the desire to know anything with 
reference to other departments of human interest. I 



THE WORLD'S TRUE REDEEMER. 39 

think this question answers itself in every man's intui- 
tion. 

II. In the second place I mention that man has a 
natural desire to make his knowledge Useful. . He 
craves and seeks to acquire natural and useful Know- 
ledge. When a boy sees a pair of skates, he wishes to 
know how he can use them. If he sees a ball, he wants 
to know how he can play with it; if a hook and line, 
to know how he can fish with them. So with the man. 
When he comes to recognize the facts of Science, or the 
development of these great discoveries in the world, he 
yearns to grasp them at once with the hand of Use. 
Why not carry that desire for Use into Religion ? 
Why shall we not make our knowledge in spiritual 
things useful ? The question answers itself. We can 
and we must. It is the inevitable tendency of the soul 
of every born human being to outgrow ignorance and 
to commence the investigation of spiritual truths. 
Mankind must make intelligent incursions through all 
these temples of ignorance, and error, and supersti- 
tion — and over them, and through them, and in the 
midst of their demolition — he must acquire useful 
knowledge in spiritual and religious truths. 

III. In the third place I will mention that man has 
a natural desire to be consistent in his Knowledge. He 
desires this jewel above all, in order to show the world 
that he knows the true use of his Knowledge, and to 
show that his use of it is exactly logical and every- 
where intelligent and symmetrical. If a man knows a 
spiritual truth, he wants to make a consistent applica- 
tion of it. If he knows a scientific truth, he wishes 
also to be consistent with that. 



40 MORNING LECTURES. 

This illustrates the intimacy with which one kind 
of knowledge is connected with another. If a man 
knows something of anatomy, he longs for a little phy- 
siology to make his anatomical science not only useful, 
but consistent ; and if he has a knowledge of physi- 
ology he says : "Now, chemistry is really necessary to 
make my physiology at once useful and consistent/' So 
he goes into chemical questions and investigates as far 
as his opportunities and prejudices will permit. If he 
gets interested deep enough in chemistry, he begins to 
look at the matter with a still broader view, and he 
says, "I must make these things useful in my daily life. 
I must show that I have real and positive knowledge. 
And, in order to make that exhibition indisputable, I 
must give it expression in my duties, in my daily avo- 
cations, and in my worldly career." 

This illustrates the desire of the human to be con- 
sistent. In the Churches, both ministers and their 
followers plant themselves on certain principles or 
premises, and each one says : " I must reason correctly 
from my fundamental propositions." If a clergyman 
believes in the Trinity, his doxology at the end of the 
sermon and hymn will always be a logical conclusion 
from his creed. If the minister believes in eternal pun- 
ishment, he will conduct himself like Henry Ward 
Beecher, who, although naturally anxious to discard 
the trammels of old theology, will, nevertheless, per- 
haps at the end of every third week's sermon bring out 
a logical hell-fire conclusion in harmony with an. 
education received from his earthly father's orthodox 
premises. 

This desire to be "consistent," too often allies 



THE WORLD'S TRUE REDEEMER. 41 

itself with the Satan of Pride. Some men having com- 
mitted themselves openly and above board to certain 
fundamental opinions in politics or in religion, are 
actuated by the feelings of pride, so much so that they 
cannot be honorably open and simple-minded enough 
to know where or what a new truth is. They desire to 
stand by the old, and not to budge. They cling to the 
time-worn falsehood very strongly ; for they design to 
show, by their adhesion to it, that they have indubita- 
ble evidence that they are not mistaken. Thus Mr. 

H , a flourishing merchant of this city, in conversation 

in Williamsburg several years ago, said to me that he 
was "a believer in total depravity." Then came the 

question: "What are your evidences, Mr. H V 9 

He answered by enumerating human evils, piling evi- 
dence upon evidence taken from history, quoted the 
crimes of society, the sins of individual men, &c, &c. 
Then we conversed concerning the hereditary and cir- 
cumstantial causes of those evils and iniquities. 

At length he yielded the point somewhat, and said : 
" Well, to be sure, special circumstances and lack of 
balance in phrenological organization, deficiency in the 
strength of will to resist evil, and various temptations, 
which flow in from the outside world upon the person, 
no doubt do explain away the intentional cause of 
many evils and vices ;" and so he measurably yielded 
the point that the human heart was not totally de- 
praved, seeing that so many iniquities and evils came 
from the sphere of conditions and circumstances. 

" Well," said I, " Mr. H , where now is your 

evidence? 55 That unfortunate question at once re- 
minded him of his position, and also aroused his pride 



42 MORNING LECTURES. 

of logical consistency, and said he: "I have, Mr. 
Davis, an unfailing evidence of total depravity." 

"Indeed?" ' "Yes." "Well, Mr. H , where do 

you find that unfailing evidence ?" " In my own heart. 
Mr. Davis." 

I told him I admired the self-sacrificing spirit he 
manifested, but I detested the pride which caused him 
to do it; for he probably knew that he owned as good 
a heart as anybody, and it was not true that he went 
to his heart to find " total depravity." It was the ambi- 
tious desire to be " consistent" — the Devil of Pride — 
that held him to his first propositions. The imp of 
darkness thus shut down the vail over the good man's 
eyes, so that he dared not see the higher and more 
simple truth with all its rosy splendor. And so he 
became the zealous editor of the Churchman. His un- 
failing evidence of total depravity was simply the sac- 
rifice of his own mind to his own avowed theory. He 
would rather stand before me a self-acknowledged 
spiritual criminal than to say that he really had no 
absolute evidence of total depravity. 

Now the world is just in this condition of pride and 
fear with reference to the Trinity, or the doctrine of 
eternal punishments. The people and priests have not 
yet simple, spiritual, and interior childhood enough to 
acknowledge that facts, heretofore accepted, are per- 
fectly invalidated by new scientific and historic evi- 
dence. They are not large enough to receive the new 
truth, and to welcome it, as happy mothers receive the 
new-born child. 

Men love, in their pride, to be " consistent." But 
in such passion they make great life-long mistakes. If 



THE WORLD'S TRUE REDEEMER. 43 

I had labored to be logical and "consistent" in any of 
my discourses, no doubt I should have been, if possible, 
less useful to you than I have. It is a remarkable fact 
that I have sometimes attempted to teach you, but at 
the end of the Lecture I found, not unfrequently, that 
I knew much more than when I began, and was, per- * 
haps, more benefited and more instructed than any 
other person. It was because a new phase of a great 
principle had been revealed to the interior, showing me 
that my internal life was still sensitively awake to the 
New, and that I was and am not wedded foolishly and 
indissolubly to the past, either personal or general. 

Now I wish to call your attention to the points 
gained in this discourse: First. Internal desire for 
Knowledge ; secondly, for Useful Knowledge ; and 
thirdly, for Consistent Knowledge. 

What is it in man that thirsts for knowledge ? 
This inquiry answers itself in this way — that the har- 
mony of all the faculties and attributes in the human 
soul constitutes what we call Wisdom. The Author of 
that harmony is also the Author of Wisdom. Persons 
who are yet not harmonized in spiritual principles, have 
only glimmering intuitions of Wisdom. It means the 
axis of the human mind coming to a parallel, so to say, 
in the plane of its orbit, with reference to the harmony 
of Deity. The unity of man's spirit with God's spirit 
is felt instantly when the fullness of wisdom is reached. 
It is the new birth. You then feel that your spirit is 
attuned to the harmony of eternal principles. The 
harmony of love shows you at once that you are part 
of an indestructible Brotherhood. Y«ur partialities 
and jealousies die down, your little feelings and selfish 



44 MORNING LECTURES. 

traits depart, and the spirit of Fraternal Love, like the 
dove that went forth from the Ark,*wings its way from 
your soul towards every son and daughter of the world. 
If you can rise to a feeling of that kind even once in a 
month, you have evidence that a new birth is taking 
place within you. 

Furthermore, when you rise to see that the law of 
gravity is not merely physical, but spiritual also ; that 
the laws that regulate mechanism and chemistry are 
spiritual as well as physical and mathematical, then 
you have attained to some perception of Wisdom. 

Wisdom sounds through the physical and reaches to 
the profound depths where God sleeps and wakes every 
instant of time. 

The penetration of the chemist is but a physical 
approach to the interior of things. He will take a sub- 
stance into the laboratory and analyze it. He arrives 
at its constituents and names them; and they are thus 
marked and classified. And he finds that, by recombi- 
nations, they make this, that, and the other substance. 
But just where the chemist leaves off, the soundings of 
Wisdom commence. The chemist fails to touch the 
vital principle by which constituents are united to 
make the various compounds. He knows that he fails 
to reach the point where spirit moves the body, and so 
he goes once more to the threshold of inquiry. When 
he arrives at that place he stops short, but Wisdom hos- 
pitably opens the door into the vestibule of the immor- 
tal temple, just at this particular critical point ; and 
thus, where the chemist, with his material methods of 
probing and analyzing, must, per force of his material 
methods, cease, there the penetrative spiritual philo- 



THE WORLD'S TRUE REDEEMER. 45 

sopher commences his investigations. And thence he is 
led out through an infinitude of spirit culture. 

Wisdom commences, I say, just where Science fails 
in its power to go. You know there are persons who all 
the time are in bondage to the sense. They behold gravi- 
tation, but to them the law itself is physical. Look at 
our material orthodox clergymen. They read the 
ponderous religious quarterlies — or the monthlies — 
which are lumbering and tediously elephantine in the 
treatment of things ; what kind of knowledge have 
they ? Talk with the most learned of these gentlemen, 
who day after day visit our best public libraries — men 
who dig through the great volumes that come across 
the Atlantic — and you will see how utterly destitute 
they are of internal perceptions of scientific and philo- 
sophic truths. Being without knowledge in these mat- 
ters, many of them are skeptics ; and although they 
attend church Sunday after Sunday, and go through all 
the forms, yet in their judgments they have no faith 
either in theology or religion. 

The world's true Redeemer is Wisdom, because 
it passes through the dress to that which is essential, 
to the spirit through the body, to the life within the 
law, to the science within the substance ; and not only 
so, but makes all of its discoveries at once consistent, 
useful, and desirable. But Wisdom seems, to most 
people, to be vague and abstract. Men do not see how 
they can put the teachings of Wisdom into operation. 
Well, then, let us see if we cannot make this truth use- 
ful, consistent, and practical. * 

Wisdom recognizes, as a central principle, the 
balance of things — -the equilibrium of forces, the adapt- 



46 MORNING LECTURES. 

ation of one substance to another, of one force to 
another, of a fish to the water, of a bird to the air, of 
light to the eye, of sound to the ear, of flavors to the 
taste, of odors to the sense of smell, of substances to 
the touch, and so on throughout the whole system. 

What is the image we see represented in poetry and 
in art on this subject ? The image is Justice. She 
holds the scales, which represent equality of propor- 
tion. Justice is the central law. It is recognized as 
the finest, most universal, and the highest expression 
of the Infinite Mind. The entire harmony of the planet- 
ary worlds, by which the stars move on in their sub- 
lime courses, never varying from the moment the 
pyramids were built to the present hour ! — in all these 
splendid, vast, and incomprehensible systems, which 
make up the heavens — comets burning their way 
through space, crossing each other's paths beautifully, 
like well-trained dancers waltzing on lines most 
familiar to their minds ; and the planets, too, moving 
on like respectable citizens in the high walks of the 
sidereal heavens— all. in never-changing harmony with 
the original design. What causes that? It is what 
Wisdom recognizes as God's central law — Justice. 

Bring it to the person, and what does it do? 

It gives us the two hands, two feet, two depart- 
ments to the brain, two eyes, two ears — doubleness, 
duality throughout — all expressions of God's central 
law, Justice. The foot cannot repel the head, nor the 
head the foot. The cerebrum cannot repel the cere- 
bellum, the cerebelftm cannot do without the cerebrum. 
Love warms Reason ; Reason cannot exist and flourish 
without Love. How is it that a man -can raise his 



THE WORLD S TRUE REDEEMER. . 47 

arm ? It is done by the laws of contraction and expan- 
sion — the two systems in harmony with each other. 
Justice breathes throughout all the system. 

Again, we find in the world what is called warmth — 
red warmth — warmth which is mellow, which is pene- 
trative, invigorating, and expanding. Wherever you 
find balance, you find warmth. What is it ? It is God's 
central principle — Love. Not the physical universe, 
but that which gives us a physical universe, is naturally 
full of warmth, flowing from the center through all 
the minutest ramifications of the system — Love. 

Now what is this all-pervading Love ? Is it a Love 
which stops with a substance ? Does it exist only in 
one heart ? Does it take no interest in anything out- 
side of itself? You know that the selfish love of the 
spirit brings no happiness to itself. Its happiness 
comes from its dependence upon the corresponding love' 
of another, then the two depend upon a third, and the 
three upon a fourth, and the four upon the existence of 
the whole world without. 

The system of human life and society is entirely 
dependent. One part is warmed by contact with 
another, and the heat is expanded and removed accord- 
ing to the principle of equilibrium. This is the divine 
Love. It is central with Nature, just as Justice is cen- 
tral with Deity. 

Deity and Nature are counterparts, equals, and 
compeers ; they are husband and wife, father and mo- 
ther, wisdom and love, and are perpetually bearing 
children. The warmth and the balance go hand in 
hand, arm in arm, their arms about each other's necks, 
working without discord through the illimitable spaces. 



48 MORNING LECTURES. 

Hence Love, which is not limited and selfish, and 
Justice, when married, constitute loving-justice — the 
best practical definition of the world's true Redeemer. 

Justice without Love is the sun without heat — with- 
out its power to fertilize, and beautify, and adorn the 
world; and the world without its Justice would be the 
sun with only heat, that would burn, and parch, and 
consume, and destroy all things. The balance of the 
universe itself would be destroyed, so that where har- 
mony dwelt, discord and conflagration would prevail. 
Thus it would be in a world full of Love, of warmth, 
but without Justice and light. 

Try this principle in your homes. I know a young 
man in one of the avenues of this city who has been so 
petted and caressed by an over-loving mother — a ma- 
ternal soul, who had Love in abundance, but not a 
corresponding sense of Justice — and that misdirected 
son is now the source of her daily anxieties and moment- 
ary miseries. She is every week put on the cross, and 
is sorely tried like one pulled joint by joint on the rack 
of torture. Why ? Because when a little baby and a 
child he had all things given him that he wanted; 
never was practically instructed by Justice to recognize 
the rights of another child. Justice was left out of her 
Love. Thus the little one came up under the arms of ma- 
ternal warmth ; and this very day that son, now a young 
man in the city of New York, is carrying poignards and 
stilettos in his disposition. He is to his mother a ser- 
pent that was nurtured in a house full of Love without 
corresponding Justice. 

Try this principle with vegetations of any kind. 
Let them have the warmth which the sun might give., 



THE WORLD'S TRUE REDEEMER. 40 

but without its regulating, adjusting, and balancing 
power, and soon you will find that the beautiful plants 
and harvests would disappear, crisped, parched, and 
destroyed, because the sun had not given down its cool- 
ing and harmonizing power, which would bring 
balance, and equilibrium, and proportion, and beauty, 
and symmetry, as well as the all-important results of 
warmth. I think you perceive that the world's true 
Savior is loving-justice, and that Wisdom is the 
apprehending and applying faculty. 

How necessary it is that men should apply this 
principle throughout. I will not detain you at this 
time by describing its influence in the various depart- 
ments of human interests. If, for example, these 
fashionable ladies could be made to see the injustice of 
their styles, with reference to other equally good ladies 
who are circumstantially unfortunate, they would not 
be guilty of another departure from wisdom. These 
fashion-ladies have been brought up under the warmth 
and wealth of the heart, without the cooling, regulat- 
ing, and equalizing principle of social Justice. They 
have learned their arts from Mother Nature ; but they 
have none of the wisdom of Father God. 

So they are all fashionable ladies ! They go to the 
churches. They would not attend a Progressive Meet- 
ing, lest it might impress an everlasting spot upon 
their reputations! And yet they do openly and un- 
blushingly that which I believe not a lady in this cause 
would do. There is in nearly all they do a terrible 
wrong, which badly affects the domestic who gets the 
dinner, and the boy who serves at the table, and still 
worse, the children, who are readiest to imitate the 
3 



50 MORNING LECTURES. 

conduct of adults. I attended a party on one occa- 
sion where there were forty ladies exquisitely arrayed 
in the fashionable dresses of the day. By a careful com- 
putation I made out exactly 720 yards of silk and satin 
and costly brocade. Think of it, ye Christians! Seven 
hundred and twenty yards of most expensive cloth, on 
forty New York church-going women ! I have also seen 
a party of forty faithful and industrious women, who had 
scarcely ten yards over the mere necessities of passable 
dress. They had scrimped themselves to just that pat- 
tern which was necessary for convenience — of course 
according to the style, so as not to be peculiar and 
conspicuous ; but the calico they wore was way down 
in price, and they were ashamed to appear among the 
finely dressed. Yet these costly pagodas, these fashion- 
able religious temples, are flashing and sparkling with 
Stewart's iniquities. Alas ! they have not yet heard the 
central gospel of God — Justice — down in the heart deep 
enough to regulate their habits and characters. There- 
fore, with all their religious professions, they are not 
friendly to the kingdom of righteousness. 

Finally, I suggest to clergymen and to all teachers 
of public morals that they at once abandon the vicious 
doctrine of the vicarious atonement, as well as the 
preaching of all other mythological methods of getting 
rid of sin and evil, and come immediately on to the 
everlasting basis of loving-justice — the world's true 
Redeemer. 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 



■ " The original 



Of all things is one thing. Creation is 
One whole. The differences a mortal sees 
Are diverse only to the finite mind." 

The cheerful, yet solemn subject, announced for this 
morning, should have attracted the editorial staff of 
" The World" but it is more remarkable that there are 
not present editors of other and more loyal sheets who 
take an interest in the end of the " world." 

My subject is the great question that frequently 
agitates thousands of honest religionists. In treating 
upon this subject I remark : 

First, That the human mind begins to reason by 
taking a literal view of everything, whether spiritual or 
material. Its first apprehensions are confined strictly 
to the apparent — to what appears — to the seeming. 
Wisdom, mounting on the wings of untrammeled Ideal- 
ity, penetrates to that which lives within. This state 
of mind judges "not from appearances, but with a 
righteous judgment" — that is, from the core outwardly, 
and not from the mere husk, burr, clothing, protection, 
appearance, or representation : thus wisdom renders an 
infallible verdict concerning that which is interior, 
spiritual, and eternal. To think or reason sensuously, 
is an error — a mistake — which is scarcely reprehensi- 



52 MORNING LECTTJBES. 

ble, hardly blameworthy, because it is the inevitable 
step of the human mind when beginning its progress in 
experience, thought, wisdom, and intuition. 

Hence there prevails a universal externalism among 
crude religionists with regard to the "End of the 
World." There are scores of persons, who, judging 
from the Bible sentences, fancy they read the fiery 
doom of the physical universe. All who live and move 
and have a being within the world, save " God and his 
holy angels," are marked down for a resurrected 
destruction. " His holy angels," according to the 
theory, will be manufactured out of certain earthly 
religionists, as their eternal reward for having believed 
the delectable creed in advance of their skeptical neigh- 
bors, even though the latter class may be respectable 
members of popular churches. The holy and sacred 
class are called " Second Adventists" — very pugna- 
cious, warm-headed, discussionary characters, energetic 
and truth-loving, over- fond of debate — especially from 
a literal apprehension of the teachings of the Testa- 
ments. Taking the sensuous interpretation as the basis 
of all their reasoning, they have erected a system of 
theologic thought (based wholly upon literal apprehen- 
sions,) which they imagine logically leads — mathemati- 
cally, prophetically, figuratively, and according to the 
biblical almanac — directly to a tragical and chemical 
termination of the physical world in which sinners now 
live. They fancy that they recognize the prophecy to 
be straight from God — of course through the mediation 
of the old prophets — and think that Christ announced 
the same awful fact whenever he spoke of the " end of 
the world." Beholding this unbroken chain of an- 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 53 

nouncement, this concatenation of prophecies, this 
unmistakable literalization of the promises of God, the 
Adventists naturally work themselves up to believe 
that, in a very short time, the dissolution of the globe 
and the end of all physical things will surely come to 
pass. All this religious imagination is based on the 
fact that the mind first takes a literal view of ancient 
spiritual writings. It is the mind's first step in theology, 
in spirituality, as in everything else it encounters on 
the road of progressive thought, experience, and 
wisdom. 

The next step the mind takes as it expands from 
intuition, is a figurative view of the Bible language. 
Minds in this state apprehend that the old prophets and 
the new apostles spoke in metaphors, wrote emblematic- 
ally, with great opulence using figurative expressions. 
Bible-believers, thus thinking, throw off the literal 
letter and the materialistic conception, and swim out 
into the open sea of pictorial and figurative interpreta- 
tion. They now seek for examples, correspondences, 
contrasts, and analogies. Swedenborg, for illustration, 
being both a scientific thinker and a philosophical reli- 
gionist, started more systematically to give to all figura- 
tive, emblematic, metaphoric, and symbolic expressions, 
the basis and dignity of a Science — reducing, in his 
own opinion, all scriptural externalisms to an intelligi- 
ble spiritual account. His principle of translation was 
something more than analogy, something more than 
mere comparison, something different from the purely 
figurative, something different from the symbol — it was 
what he called the " Science of Correspondence" — 
meaning that the internal of an object, person, thought, 



54 MORNING LECTURES. 

affection, subject, or thing, is always represented in its 
externals, and vice versa ; that while a sheep will rep- 
resent nothing but a sheep to the external eye looking 
over the fence into the field, at the same time to the eye 
of the spiritual mind the sheep naturally represents and 
really seems to be nothing but the sentiment or princi- 
ple of innocence. De Guay, in his " Letters [No. XII] 
to a Man of the World," gives the following familiar 
examples : " The earth in general corresponds to man ; 
its different productions, which serve for the nourish- 
ment of men, correspond to different kinds of goods 
and truths — the solid aliments to various kinds of 
goods, and the liquid to various kinds of truths. A 
house corresponds to the will and the understanding, 
which constitute the human mind: by house we here 
understand all that serves for lodging or retreat, the 
palace as well as the hut. Garments correspond to 
truths or falses, according to the substance, color, and 
form, which they present. Animals correspond to the 
affections ; those which are useful and gentle to good 
affections, those which are hurtful and bad to evil 
affections; gentle and beautiful birds to intellectual 
truths, those which are ferocious and ugly to falses ; 
fishes to the scientifics which derive their origin from 
things sensual ; reptiles to corporeal and sensual plea- 
sures ; and noxious insects to falsities which proceed 
from the senses. Trees and shrubs correspond to differ- 
ent kinds of knowledges ; and herbs and grass correspond 
to various kinds of scientific truths. Gold corresponds 
to celestial good, silver to spiritual truth, brass to 
natural good, iron to natural truth, stones to sensual 
truths, precious stones to spiritual truths." 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 55 

So Swedenborg goes through the mystic sphere of 
psycho-scientific research, and succeeds in reducing the 
whole Bible, or at least so much of it as, according to 
his superior illumination, was correspondentially writ- 
ten, to a consistent system of interior interpretation. 
It must strike every one as evident that the Swedish 
Seer ever and anon struck the core of Divine fruit on 
the biblical trees ; almost every second step he planted 
his foot on the basis of everlasting truth. If he had 
struck solid ground every time, the world would find in 
him an infallible teacher. Unfortunately for him, per- 
haps, but unquestionably fortunate for the human 
millions, Swedenborg. touched spiritual truth just unfre- 
quently enough to convince many persons who read 
him that he was not infallible. Those who look at this 
question independently, see that, although it is very 
easy to think and say that a duck corresponds to a 
doctor of medicine and a goose to a doctor of divinity, 
still the so-called science is obviously arbitrary, and 
may not be true universally. For your spiritually- 
minded brother in Scotland, looking at the duck, may 
not think of seeing therein represented " a doctor of 
medicine/' and not always in the goose a " doctor of 
divinity ;" on the contrary, these twaddling birds or 
gawky fowls may represent very different affections, 
thoughts, persons, or professions, and may continue 
through all time to suggest something different from 
Swedenborg's meaning. And yet I hesitate not to say 
that the iC Science of Correspondence" is the closest 
approach to a great discovery in the substantial sense 
of spiritual communications recorded in the Old and 
New Testaments. 



56 MORNING LECTURES. 

But there have been, and are, persons who have 
conceived that, inasmuch as there was a spirituul sense 
tucked away in the literal Word, so it would be unfair 
if there could not be found a celestial sense still more 
concealed within the spiritual. These ambitious souls 
also think that it would be unfair for an hundred years 
to pass away without producing some " celestial seer" 
who could out-Swedenborgianize the Word. Among 
Spiritualists there is, or has been, a person who thinks 
and professes to believe that he has seen a finer sense in 
the Bible than Swedenborg saw, rippling all the way 
through from Genesis to Kevelations. His first ambi- 
tious installment — "the Arcana of Christianity" — has 
been published. 

On the same principle, and by parity of reasoning, 
you may apprehend that some other person will, by and 
by, arrogate the discovery of a " heavenly sense" as 
superior to the celestial ; and yet another who would 
say that there was a " deific sense" superior to the 
heavenly^ and so the absurdity might flow on ad infini- 
tum. The reasoning is deceptive and sophistical. They 
take for granted what remains to be established. Thus: 
Since the literal sense of your Bible is extinguished, 
since the spiritual sense is not sufficient, and since the 
celestial sense is already exhausted, is it not necessary 
now, in order to have the celestial sense perfectly com-' 
prehended, to cap it all with the climacteric discovery 
of God's own mind ? I believe that no such religious 
fanaticism will ever appear in a healthy human 
mind. Such an ambition could be nothing less than a 
parasitical development on the healthy faculties of hu- 
man reason. Let us hope and pray that such religious 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 57 

monstrosities will never appear in the course of modern 
spiritual development and philosophic growth. 

Let me now ask your attention to the universal fact 
that the internal and the external of all things are 
married, and do literally correspond to and represent 
each other; that what is true in the external, in any- 
thing, anywhere, is equally true of the internal in the 
same thing and place. Hence there cannot be such a 
thing as a religious truth which is incompatible or 
inconsistent with a scientific or a philosophic discovery 
in a corresponding department. There can be no 
incompatibility, no antagonism, between what religion- 
ists call a " revealed and natural religion." Paul has 
fully shown this ; others have demonstrated it ; and no 
man can escape the laws and logic of Reason. The 
changeless God who " built the palace of the sky," and 
talks to men through various mediators, could do no 
incohesive deed, could speak no inconsistent word ; but, 
when understood, both the Deed and the Word univer- 
sally harmonize as do fellow-notes when speaking in the 
highest music. 

This statement is the internal conviction of the 
world ; the intuition of all peoples, both Heathen and 
Christian. If the people of Christendom would take 
those documents, which, bound together, are called the 
" Old and New Testaments," as simply and only a por- 
tion of the spiritually- written word of God, and hos- 
pitably accept the scriptures of all heathen nations with 
just as much reverence, and see that God spoke through 
them all, even as he speaks through the organization and 
habits of the meanest worm that ever crawled in mud, 
as through the beauty and perfections of the highest 



58 MORNING LECTURES. 

seraph that ever sung under the finite sun, then indeed 
would the earth rejoice in gladness ; for all religionists 
and Spiritualists would be enlarged and ennobled by 
the presence and influence of perpetual and universal 
inspirations. 

-But, on the other hand, confine all authoritative 
inspirations to a stereotyped volume — excluding all 
God's words to the Chaldeans, Arabians, Chinese, and 
the other nations who in past times have received truths 
from the same inexhaustible Divine source — do this, as 
Christians do, and you exclude golden sunlight, pure 
air, blissful health, and impartial wisdom from you ; 
and, in consequence, you become miserable automatons 
of a fashionable, popular, and outrageously expensive 
religion, lull of dried creeds and dead men's bones. 

The application of the principle announced would 
be this : Just what is true in the world of science, we 
shall find equally true in the social world ; what is true 
in the social world, we shall find equally true in the 
world of politics ; what is true in the world of politics, 
we shall find equally true in the world's laws and 
governments; what is true in outward governments, 
will be found equally true in the internal history of par- 
ticular races ; and what is true in all these, will be 
found equally true in the geology of the globe and the 
destiny of the human family ; what is true in geology 
and the destiny of the aggregation of persons, you will 
find equally, intimately, delicately, eternally true in 
every single component part of your mental existence! 

Geology — a scientific knowledge of the earth — has 
been practically born within the last quarter of the 
present century. It has already arisen to the com- 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 59 

manding position of the wisest commentary that was 
ever written on book-religion. It is this day the pro- 
foundest expounder and pounder of Genesis; for the 
authority of the book and the source of the authority 
have dropped out long ago to those who have had the 
industry, independence, and talent to investigate. Per- 
haps, in this connection, it may be best to glance at the 
outlines of the harmonial philosophy of creation in the 
physical Universe. 

The great original, ever-existing, omniscient, om- 
nipotent, and omnipresent productive power,— the Soul 
of all existences — is throned in a - central sphere, the 
circumference of which is the boundless universe, and 
around which solar, sidereal, and stellar systems, 
revolve in silent, majestic sublimity and harmony ! This 
power is what mankind call Deity, whose attributes are 
love and wisdom, corresponding with the principles of 
male and female, positive and negative, creative and 
sustaining. 

The first goings forth or out-births from this great 
celestial Center, are spiritual or vital suns. These, 
after due elaboration or gestation, give birth to natural 
suns — those that become cognizable to the outward or 
natural senses of man. These again become centers, 
or mothers, from which earths are born, with all the 
elements of matter, and each minutest particle infused 
with the vivifying, vitalizing spirit of the parent Forma- 
tor. The Essences of heat or fire — electricity, galvan- 
ism, magnetism — are all the natural or outward mani- 
festations of the productive energy, the vitalizing Cause 
of all existences. It pervades all substances and ani- 
mates all forms. 



60 MOENING LECTURES. 

The Progress of Formation is from the lower to 
the higher, from the crude to the refined, from the simple 
to the complicated, from the imperfect to the perfect—- 
but in distinct degrees or congeries. That is, the lower 
must first be developed, to elaborate the materials, and 
prepare the way for the higher. Thus, after the sun 
gave birth to the earth — and the same of all other 
planets — the action of the vitality within the particles 
of matter, and its constant emanation in the form of 
heat, light, electricity, &c. — first from the great Cen- 
tral sphere to the sun, and thence to the earth, acting 
upon the granite and other rocks, with the atmosphere, 
the water, and other compound and simple elements — 
then new compounds were formed, possessing this vital 
principle in sufficient quantities to give definite forms, 
as crystallization, organization, motion, life, sensation, 
intelligence — the last being the highest or ultimate 
attribute of production on our earth, and possessed or 
reached to perfection only by man. 

A glance at the progress of creation, in the produc- 
tion of our earth and its inhabitants, will serve as an 
illustration of the same process and progress of worlds 
in the vast expanse of the universe, that are perpetually 
and continually being brought into existence, and ulti- 
mating the grand object of the whole — namely, to 
develop and perfect individualized, self-conscious, ever- 
existing, immortal spirits, that shall be in the "image 
and likeness" of the Central Cause, and dwell forever 
in the Summer Spheres. 

I will now describe the process of the earth's ori- 
gin. Within the circumference of the sun, elementary 
particles of matter gather around a nucleus, which con- 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 61 

tinues to aggregate and increase in dimension and 
variety of parts, in its perpetual and endless revolu- 
tions and evolutions, gradually advancing towards the 
outer surface of this fiery orb, as it increases in com- 
plexity and density, until it approaches the extreme 
verge of the sun ; when, by the impetus or centrifugal 
force it has attained, from its more compact structure 
and consequent increase of specific gravity, it breaks 
loose from its parent and flies off at a tangent into illi- 
mitable space. If a ball of lead and another of cotton, 
of the same size, be tied each to a string and whirled 
violently around until the strings break, the leaden ball 
will fly off in almost a straight line, for a long distance, 
before it makes a curve towards the earth ; while the 
cotton ball will perform a graceful curve from the mo- 
ment it breaks loose, and soon falls to the ground. The 
experiment will illustrate the movements of a planet, 
when first thrown off from the sun (being much more 
dense) ; or, in other words, it will account for the 
eccentric movement of comets, which, in fact, are new- 
born and baby earths or planets. The extreme tenuity, 
fluidity, and rarefaction of its particles, and its conse- 
quent feeble cohesive attraction, and its irregular 
orbituary and axillary movements, give the new earth 
elongated, attenuated, and many curious forms, as pre- 
sented to the beholder on another planet. Sometimes 
it happens that the caudal extremity gets so " long 
drawn out, 55 and so far from the center of gravity — the 
proper polarity or axis not being yet fully estab- 
lished — that a part or parts become detached or broken 
off. The detached parts become "satellites/ 5 or moons, 
which continue to revolve around and within the orbit 



62 MORNING LECTURES. 

of the new earth. Our earth has one of these parasites ! 
Other planets several. 

In the lapse of ages, the attractive and repulsive, or 
the centripetal and centrifugal forces, become equalized, 
the particles of matter have formed more intimate asso- 
ciations, the outer surfaces have locked up a large por- 
tion of the free caloric within the embrace of their own 
substance, and have consequently condensed and hard- 
ened — a globular form has succeeded the oblate sphere, 
with its spinal extremity, and a regular orbit is defined 
and maintained. Oxygen and nitrogen have united in 
the proper proportions to form the atmosphere ; oxygen 
and hydrogen have combined to form water ; oxygen 
and silicon have entered into an adamantine embrace to 
form quartz rock ; oxygen and carbon have formed a 
tripartite union with calcium, producing immense beds 
of carboniferous lime-stone. Numerous other combina- 
tions of oxygen with gases, metals, and other elements 
— and these again combining with other simple or com- 
pound substances— have brought out of this vast amor- 
phous mass of elementary materials — as they existed in 
an intensely heated and rarefied state, when first thrown 
off from the sun — new, and more solid, and more perma- 
nent forms. 

In all this beautiful, harmonious, and ever-progress- 
ive flow of productive affinities, oxygen plays a very 
conspicuous part, as a positive, energizing, vitalizing 
principle. It appears to have grasped, and to have held 
fast within its embrace, the very germs of vitality. Phos- 
phorus is another form of its tangible development, not 
yet understood by chemists or physiologists. No living 
plant or animal can exist without it. It is always 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 63 

found in the seeds and germinal principles, in the sub- 
stance of the bone and brain and nerves, and in yet 
other parts of vegetables and animals. 

In the course of time, when " the waters had sub- 
sided/' the heat and light emanating continually from 
the sun — upon the waters of the seas, and in rain, and 
mist, and dew — acted upon the surfaces of the granite 
and other rocks, abrading, decomposing, and uniting 
with their elements to produce other new compounds of 
a more refined and perfect nature. Thus large beds 
of gelatinous matter were formed in shallow pools be- 
neath the water-level, and a slimy coating upon the' 
surfaces of the rocks above the water. (See second part 
Great Harmonia, vol. 5.) Thus soil was first formed — a 
preparation, elaboration, and combination of material, 
susceptible of developing vegetable life, marine and 
terrestrial. The first vegetable forms springing from 
these slimy rocks, were simple and not defined in their 
structure, being lichens, or cryptogamous plants, about 
seventy per cent, of whose substance is gelatin. 

As one forcible evidence of the fact of vegetables 
first originating from the elements of the rock on which 
they germinate, and from the heat, light, atmosphere, 
and moisture, is, that each rock of different chemical 
composition, when exposed to these influences, will pro- 
duce a moss peculiar to itself, and the same rock, in 
any latitude where it can grow, will always produce a 
plant of the same species, and each plant in its turn, of 
the thousands of classes, orders, genera, species, and 
varieties now in existence, will invariably produce an 
animalcule, or insect, peculiar to itself. These are facts 



64 MORNING LECTURES. 

that have been abundantly substantiated by the most 
scientific naturalists of the age. 

The first forms of vegetation were brought into 
being, and perfected in their kind — elaborating from 
their own substance a germ .or nucleus of vitality with 
the impress of its own individuality, inclosed within a 
receptacle capable of preserving and sustaining it, till 
the favorable action of the elements (in heat, light, 
moisture, and the soil,) could bring forth from each 
germ or seed " an image and likeness" of its parent — 
the organized substance or body of the original plant, 
having performed the ultimate object of its existence, 
dies, and the elements of which it is composed mingle 
with the thin soil on the surface of the rocks, adding to 
its substance, increasing its complexity, and refining its 
particles ; so that, with the return of the vernal equi- 
nox, and the genial rays of the sun, not only the seeds 
of the old lichen unfold and expand into the same spe- 
cies, but a new and more complicated plant, with 
distinct and marked differences (perhaps a fern,) 
makes its appearance, and rears its graceful stem and 
spreads its glossy foliage above the lowly moss. 

Thus the ever-present and ever-active principle of 
vitality and creative Energy, acting and reacting upon 
the materials of our globe, started the kingdoms of 
Nature, which have and will ever continue to pro- 
gress — from the simple to the more complicated vegeta- 
ble forms: animalcule, infusoria, radiata, molusca, 
vertebrata, and Man as the Ultimate. The lowest and 
imperfect first, and the more complex and perfect after, 
in regular progression, but in distinct degrees. Each 
new type being dependent upon all that preceded it for 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 65 

its existence, but yet distinct and different from its pre- 
decessors. 

Thus it requires certain conditions, proportions, 
and combinations of elementary inorganic substances 
to produce a vegetable — and vegetable growth is 
dependent entirely upon elementary regimen — while 
animals cannot be produced or sustained in their exist- 
ence by inorganic or elementary matter. The organic 
compounds of the blood, muscular fiber, gelatin, skin, 
hair, nails, or horns, &c, are all formed in exact con- 
stituents or proportions from the elementary particles 
that enter into their composition by the vegetable. The 
vegetable kingdom must, therefore, have existed before 
the animal— the vegetable realm being the stepping- 
stone, or connecting-link, between the elementary or 
mineral kingdom and the animal. Hence, if the 
vegetable kingdom should by any cause be blotted out 
from the face of the earth, the animal would soon be 
annihilated. 

All types in the endless chain of inorganic and 
organized substances, are but links in the one system 
of cause and effect, and each type or species is so marked 
and distinct as easily to be distinguished, and each 
variety and unity of the human species is so indelibly 
stamped with its own perfected individuality, as to be 
recognized from the myriads of the species. 

Thus, fixed, unvarying, and universal laws of the 
Father govern and regulate all his works. From the 
first fiat that was sent forth throughout all the ramifi- 
cations of the Universe, spiritual, physical, and celes- 
tial, eternal unity, order, and harmony reigns- — 
conception, development, progression, and perfection, 



66 MORNING LECTURES. 

mark all His work, and all point with the irresistible 
force of reason and demonstration to the immortality of 
the Soul. 

In taking this philosophical view of the plan and 
progress of Nature and the works of God, how grand, 
how sublime, how comprehensive, how rational and 
satisfactory — to the independent-thinking and inquiring 
mind, who wishes to " have a reason for the faith that is 
within hini" — how perfectly are the love and wisdom 
and justice of the Father and Mother conjugated and 
displayed ! And how real, conclusive, and overwhelm- 
ing the evidence — appealing directly to the senses, the 
intellect, and the affections — of the self-conscious, 
immortal existence and progressive happiness of the 
" spirit" that is within us ! The human species being 
the last and highest Type upon our earth, and the only 
one possessing reason and intelligence that examines 
and investigates all that is beneath and around itself, 
and that has a consciousness of th& future— endeavoring- 
to raise or draw aside the thin, semi-transparent vail 
that hangs suspended between the physical and the 
spiritual existence — analogy, "reasoning from what 
we know/ 5 points directly not only to the probability, 
but to the absolute certainty and necessity of a future 
existence — in short and finally, to the Summer-Land! 

All organic forms below man not only produce their 
like, but the substances of their material forms mingle 
with previously-formed compounds, to produce a new 
and distinct type superior to itself. But the human type 
has no svperior development, and there is no retrogres- 
sion in the works of Nature. Each new unfolding is 
superior to the preceding. Man, then, is destined for 



THE END OF THE WORLT>. 67 

other and higher Spheres. In those Spheres, or new 
states of existence, man's spirit must present not only 
an " image and likeness" of Nature and God, but a 
consciousness of identity and individual selfhood. 
Feeling anil knowing this, he should so live while in 
this rudimentary and preparatory state of existence, 
that all physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual 
structure, formation, growth, and maturity, be fully 
developed, cultivated, and perfected ; so that when the 
" mortal puts on immortality," and seeks " a home in 
the heavens," it can expand into a celestial being with- 
out spot or blemish to mar its beauty, or impede its 
progress in bliss and glory. 

Thus Geology teaches, among her first lessons, the 
rise, perfection, blossoming, decay, and disappearance 
of various classes of vegetation. She teaches that the 
simplest forms — gelatinous fibers oozing out from the 
lonely margins of early seas — crept over the rocks, 
gave out their effluence, laid the foundation for some- 
thing better, gathered the electricities of the air, 
absorbed carbon, became hard ; then the rains washed 
them down into deep declivities and spacious valleys, 
and carefully packed them away for the people to dig 
out in the form of " coal" many hundred centuries after- 
wards! Those primeval mosses and early vegetations — 
the original plants and early trees, once the only glory 
of the physical world — are all gone into dense*black- 
ness, fit only for the stove, the grate, and the igneous 
stomachs of Monitors, iron-clads, ocean steamers, and 
locomotives. Then the earth brought forth higher 
orders — grand, large, immensely high trees, which 
packed away in their capacious trunks centuries upon 



68 MORNING LECTURES. 

centuries of growth and chemistry. Regally, supremely, 
these trees flourished. But at length, gathering their 
forces more closely within — deeper, with greater con- 
centration — took fire and burned themselves to death ! 
Soon out of sight, they became a portion 6f the floral 
history of that epoch. 

Then, in the depths of the many warm seas, gelatin- 
ous compounds were slowly developed up into points of 
"life." The early minute fishes flourished in myriads 
throughout the seas, and also through infusorial organi- 
zations, propagating incomprehensible harvests of finer 
organizations, and then decomposing, becoming in hun- 
dreds of centuries petroleum for the machinery of the 
world — filling all the little crevices of rocks and val- 
leys below the earth's surface, wherever they existed, 
and died in large abundance in the era of their greatest 
glory— now only oil, to-day being pumped up and 
burned in our most fashionable parlors. So the early 
points of life died, and though they were honored with 
no tombstones to mark their graves, they have arisen 
from the rocks and live in the world's best uses. 

Let us go on through the animal kingdom, where 
yet more distinctly the same lesson is taught. The first 
animals were huge in physical organization — ponderous 
and immense — slow in their motions ; they were 
filled with indolence — mere gastric receptacles or sto- 
machs* for the digestion of dense forms of vegetable 
matter — built for the reception and impartation of parti- 
cles upon which they fed to form the basis of something 
better. Thus, primeval animals served for steps in a 
flight of stairs — for laws and materials to walk upward 
to the plane of finer organizations. You remember 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 69 

what Geology teaches with reference to the megathe- 
riums, the mammoths, and the ponderous saurians that 
once roamed over the earth — the vast elephantine ani- 
mals that were once so numerous and powerful that 
nothing short of an earthquake could extinguish them — 
now all gone, save those vestiges and remains of 
nobility which continue in the modern elephant, the 
camel, and in the various squirming vipers in the fields 
of civilization and far off on mountain-sides, each 
declaring itself to be nothing more than the relic of 
vast viprous and animal populations long extinct. 

These great lessons come from Nature's and God's 
word. Say not, therefore, when you go from the read- 
ing of this Lecture, that you have been where infidelity 
was taught ; but when asked : " What have you been 
reading ?" you can in truth reply : " I have been learn- 
ing lessons from the word of God." These truths are 
words of Deity, because they are written on the ever- 
lasting rocks and upon the beautiful hills, which show 
their secret instructions to those who will read and 
have " a heart to understand" God's infallible ideas 
written in the wondrous volume of Nature. Always 
the wisest mind is the best reader — the fastest learner, 
and the happiest. 

It becomes now particularly important to observe 
that the higher grades of animals — those which exist 
on the earth to-day — are not the everlasting com- 
panions of the world. You know that it is even now 
difficult to keep certain animals in the world. Already 
science is concerning itself with the propagation of par- 
ticular fishes. These animals and fishes are growing 
fewer, not simply because mankind feed upon them with 



70 MORNING LECTURES. 

such unbridled rapacity, but because, although they 
show the usual large preparations for future pro- 
geny, y.et only a small percentage of their young are 
matured. Certain species of fish are, for this cause, 
almost utterly extinct. Certain birds, too, are growing 
" beautifully less" and less numerous, showing that 
their type is slowly becoming extinct. 

On this island of Manhattan, on which we exist to- 
day, the time was when wild beasts — more wild than 
the worst people in their passions — roamed through 
thickets and dank swamps ; the red man was lord of 
all ; and fishes worked through the murky waters, and 
loathsome worms wriggled their happy lives away in 
the dirt and slime beneath. Behold, now it is a resur- 
rected Isle! Like the new "Atlantis" prophesied in 
early Platonic history, bounded by the sea on all sides, 
opulent with science, and art, and happy homes, adorned 
by beautiful persons, filled with wisdom and affection, 
and bound together by united interests. These things 
for New York are prophesied on the basis of what now 
exists, because the departure of the wildness from the 
lower parts of Nature in the Island is a promise, in an 
internal sense, of the advent of that which is better, 
higher, grander, in whatsoever is human — in society 
and in government. 

Many vipers that once lived and propagated in 
fearful abundance can now scarcely be found. Civili- 
zation marches onward and exterminates them. What 
is civilization ? Is it the especial intention of the pio- 
neer who goes to the far west, to destroy poisonous 
serpents or to kill wild animals ? No. Civilization 
does not come of intention ; it is the impulse of the 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 71 

great law of Progress which gives to man's instinct 
two expressions: one to kill for purposes of hunger, 
and the other to kill to gratify the desire to overcome 
— to give the pleasure of extermination. Nothing so 
much as man is endowed with this double motive to 
kill. The animals beneath man kill only to satisfy the 
demands of hunger. But man kills by the force of a 
higher propulsion — to destroy whatever is inimical to 
his highest material interests, dangerous to thej, children 
that play at the door, and baneful to the progeny that 
will come after them. A man is not made to stop and 
think, when he is first called upon to kill ^ bear or a 
lion, whether it would be likely to destroy a human 
being, or not, if left with life. It is the inevitable 
voice of conquest that cries within him — the irresisti- 
ble, sturdy impulse, to convince his own faculties — to 
show by skillful marksmanship that he can destroy the 
enemy or animal before him. 1 say all this is testimony 
that the law of Progress — welling up through the hu- 
man faculties and blundering through the stupid head 
yet clear eye of the marksman — is exterminating all 
serpents and animals which are incompatible with the 
coming grand future of this planet. 

Time is a fine-comb, and Progress is the strong iron 
hand that grasps it — drawing it through all parts of 
the head of humanity ; and it will comb it clean ! All 
ferocious and venomous animals, all poisonous plants, 
all meddlesome bugs, all summer flies, all wasps that 
sting — everything that comes out of filth • and opposes 
refinement — everything that shocks civilization, that 
comes as an insult and slight to the mind's higher sen- 
timents — is destined, like these elder animals, and 



72 MORNING LECTURES. 

fishes, and primordial trees, and early submarine vege- 
tations, to go down and die out of existence ! 

You cannot escape the conclusion that the human 
race is destined to pass through a similar experience. 
The theologic, or intuitive dream of the l * End of the 
World," is based in a fact as well as upon a figure of 
speech ; it is the upshot of a principle as well as a con- 
ception of its open manifestation. 

When the early vegetation died out, to them it was 
the end of the world. When the early saurians with- 
drew, when the vast birds died, when the old dragons 
and mammoth-bats which once roamed and flew through 
the world became extinct, to them it was the end of the 
world. When these various modern serpents, these 
ferocious animals, these poisonous plants, become 
extinct, to them it will be the end of the world. 

Races and nations rise up ; they flourish, grow opu- 
lent ; they reach the maximum of material happiness ; 
they slide down a rough declivity toward the sunset of 
history ; and where another and a new nation is born, 
there those once great nations are sepulchered. To the 
dying nations it is the end of the world. The early 
Aztecs thought that once the world was literally 
destroyed by a mighty Whirlwind. The Chaldeans, 
the Chinese, and others, have a myth that the world was 
once destroyed by a general Flood. (I believe there 
is a very similar myth recorded in the Old Testament.) 
The earliest Greeks taught that the globe was once 
destroyed by a Fire. Perhaps it will help the myth by 
saying that many Greeks were Alchemists and believed 
much in fire ! Famine was the means which hungry 
races supposed the gods used to destroy the world. A 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 73 

few tribes of Indians in North America believed in the 
destruction of the world by famine. Ther.e are, in fact, 
some twenty-five to thirty different doctrines in the 
world with regard to the means by which the physical 
world was once destroyed. Christians take one plan 
of destroying the world's population — that of water. 
By the amouut of imperfection and corruption still 
remaining, one would be justified in saying* that the 
water had been withdrawn several centuries too soon. 
It seems to have left the creed portion of the world 
muddier than it was before. World-makers and world- 
destroyers should not undertake to kill a population by 
water unless they can do the work universally and 
thoroughly. The world was not yet quite finished 
when that great Flood swept over the mountains and 
destroyed all ; and yet the drowning was not suffi- 
ciently thorough ; it did not destroy the evil conditions 
which caused the American rebellion ! There was left 
in human nature a whole nest of evil eggs, which, when 
incubated by the law of Progress, will bring out, in the 
future of this country, the enactment of another Re- 
bellion like this thing which is to-day startling and 
upturning all the nations of the world. And why? 
Because no literal Flood, however universal, however 
high over the peaks of the Andes it might have been, 
or may be, could not and cannot quite kill out all human 
imperfections. " Perfection out of imperfection comes," 
as flowers bloom out of the dark, dreary, and unrespon- 
sive earth. That is the reason why the end of the 
world does not come in haste. It is the infinite method 
of doing finite things — the perpetual going over dreary 
4 



74 MORNING LECTURES. 

wastes and imperfect conditions — up to that which is 
blooming, beautiful, and perfect. 

Now the physical globe is to follow this progressive 
law. If a nation rises and matures, if it gathers around 
itself all the arts, and sciences, and splendors, and 
finally decays and dies ; so mankind may surely expect 
that the globe itself, after its mission is all accom- 
plished, will mature, decay, die, and disappear from 
space! Astronomy, geology, chemistry, and all the 
sciences, show that this earth began ; they demonstrate 
with equal certainty that it will also grow old and be 
dissolved. Its chemical affinities, in a few hundred 
thousand years, will become antipathies. Its atoms will 
rush to the embrace of thousands of other bodies. 

The human race, properly so-called, is scarcely 
forty thousand years old. How old that is to a planet's 
population, you can judge by the aspect of the planet 
itself. "What means it in this Temperate Zone, right 
between two great extremes, that we have these change- 
able seasons — these excessively curious exhibitions of 
climate and of temperature 1 Because, I reply, the 
earth itself is yet new — is not yet out of its teens ! In 
its waters, in its mountains and valleys, in its chemis- 
try, the globe is yet all undeveloped. Its treasures are 
yet locked up in trunks of trees and fastened in recesses 
far down beneath the soil. The atmosphere, even in 
the temperate belt, is yet rampant with a thousand-fold 
eccentricities ; it is daily giving grotesque expressions 
of its innate, uncouth barbarisms ; is not yet civilized 
enough to keep out of your doors even when you have 
locked them ; not decent enough to cease "blowing you 
up' 7 when you seek to comfortably and peaceably walk 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 75 

through the streets or open fields. Why, our uncivil- 
ized atmosphere is producing terrible havoc with 
navigation — is interfering every day with the com- 
merce of the world — like a barbarian not yet wise 
enough to follow the ways of wisdom. The globe is like 
a wild boy. He tumbles down stairs when he should 
be walking, and falls through the ice while skating, 
when he ought to be self-poised and too wise for acci- 
dents. The atmosphere is like a powerful wild horse 
not perfectly trained. Ever and anon it gathers up its 
black powers, stands before a chasm with accumulated 
vigor and tremendous energy, and bounds to the oppo- 
site side with all the madness of unemployed power. 
A wild horse sweeping over the prairies : that is the 
earth's atmosphere. This all explains why the ele- 
ments play mankind such pranks, unroofing houses, 
tumbling over chimneys, and paying no more respect to 
a church-steeple than to the pole of a hay-stack ! 

When Benjamin Franklin sent up his card, he sim- 
ply obtained a slight indication that Mr. Lightning 
would, one of these days, be sociable and come to tea. 
He did get some of the fearful fluid bottled up; just 
enough to talk with it — nothing more. Now Mr. Light- 
ning is social and chatty. . He tells all the truth, and 
nearly all the lies, about the present war. " Electri- 
city," alias " Lightning," cuts awful pranks with people 
in cholera times, and causes all kinds of unutterable 
mischief, according to recent discoveries, in the dis- 
eases of animals throughout the country. All because 
the fluid is not tame — it is wild, barbarous ; it has not 
come into the best society ; and it does not know how 
to behave among folks. 



76 MORNING LECTURES. 

All this is equally true of the globe. The earth is 
eccentric ; it is sidewise in its orbit ; it does not yet 
know enough to get down and lie straight in its bed. 
Now it rolls in its path almost wrong end foremost. 
When the poles of the planet shall come into harmony 
with the plane of its orbit, then how beautifully the 
sun will cause all parts of it to bloom ! The globe is 
not yet sufficiently good to be so blessed. It will not 
be so blessed while this orbital inequality continues to 
exist. 

Mankind must not soon expect our oceans to be 
calm, nor our lightnings to save the churches, nor hur- 
ricanes to respect haystacks, or people, or cattle, nor 
that the atmosphere will soon be civilized enough to 
favor men in their Arctic explorations or coast-line 
navigations; 

Men sneer at the fanatic who thinks he can ride in 
the air. Are you quite sure that the man is a fool who 
thinks that one of these days we will rise up in the air 
and be as safe, more certain, and far quicker, in our 
voyage, than when shipping for Europe^ on the best 
steamer? Men laugh at those who dare suggest its 
scientific practicability. Most people belong to the 
race who have the power and the pomposity to laugh 
at fanatics, until their children adopt the inventions of 
those fanatics, and until mankind enjoy all the luxu- 
ries which such improvements diffuse throughout the 
world. Now, I say, mankind are not yet old enough 
on this planet, nor is the atmosphere old enough, nor 
is electricity tame enough, and the mental world itself 
is not large and good enough, to realize aerial naviga- 
tion. Therefore it will not come right away. But just 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 77 

as sure as I am now speaking — as certain as birds fly — 
so certain will safe, swift, and delightful air navigation 
be man's achievement. 

The earth is yet very young. , It is now only a few 
millions of years old — in its early teens — has not been 
in existence long enough to prepare the human race for 
a higher degree of civilization. Only a few years ago, 
across the Atlantic, in France, a man, although starving 
to death, -gave to the world systematic intimations and 
lofty demonstrations to the effect that a higher social 
order would inevitably come. Of course it is popular 
to slander him, and to blacken his character out of 
sight ; but the 

11 Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again." 

Not all that Fourier or Swedenborg said is true ; not 
all that I say is true. True men make their words as 
near truth as possible. Mankind must be catholic and 
all-embracing ; instead of excluding all the conflicting 
creeds, better take them all in and pulverize them. 

When you go upon the mountain hights, and with 
your vision sweep the plain, and the whole horizon of 
thought, can you not take the pictures home with you, 
and tell your wife and children what you have seen and 
enjoyed on the summit ? Perhaps your wife and little 
ones live in the valley of thought ; they may look out 
only through the open door, or through some panes of 
broken glass, and see only a few pigs or the dirty fowls 
that are squawking for something to eat, and crying 
children that need bread to keep them still : this, per- 
haps, is what the valley-minded woman sees in her 
lowly estate. Or, perhaps the wife is the progressive 



78 MORNING LECTURES. 

member of the house. If the better-minded woman 
goes, I pray that she will try to attract upwards with 
her that ponderous being called " a husband. 5 ' Go on 
together, if it be possible ; sweep the horizon of Pro- 
gression, take in the thoughtful scene ; then, on return- 
ing, tell your listening neighbors, who have not yet 
gone up, of the rivers and mountains, plains, farm- 
houses, and beautiful trees — all the picturesque 
vision of higher forms of truth. 

The mental world, I repeat, is young. The physi- 
cal globe, too, is so young that it cannot be speedily 
called to order. The tempests of the physical world 
are only what we see mentally breaking out in the gal- 
leries of political conventions. Hurricanes are but 
parts of what occurs in the State Legislatures. Where 
political heathenism exists, there will be tornadoes and 
hurricanes ! It is natural for people to be dirty until 
they are washed. People will be covered with politi- 
cal, social, and religious vermin, until they are per- 
fectly cleansed and civilized, purely clothed, and 
thoroughly combed. All this is applicable to the phy- 
sical world. 

What of the races ? The nations and peoples are 
not prepared for a higher order of society. They have 
not lived up to their present knowledge, and of course 
they are not ready for a grander social or political 
development. Best minds are ready only to say and 
believe that something better is possible, and that 
is all. But " humanity sweeps onward." 

The great world is grand and sublime, because it 
rolls progressively away toward the coming centu- 
ries ! The human race, about forty thousand years old, 



THE END OF THE WORLD. 79 

has but reached its thirteenth year in true civilization. 
In its politics, in its republicanism, in its democracy, in 
its poetry, in its music, and in its spirituality, the race 
is yet very young. Much will happen when 100,000 
more of these rolling years shall have passed away ! 
"The notes of music which come through spiritual com- 
munications — from the lofty summits of heavenly inspi- 
ration — enable us to catch but imperfect glimpses of 
the " good time 55 when the earth shall ripen and blos- 
som as the rose. All this shows what the world is fast 
coming to see. 

When mankind shall have grown spiritually larger 
and finer in body, they will have fewer and fewer 
children. Down in the lower strata of society behold 
how populous ! Take the early races : they propa- 
gated rapidly. Earth's mothers have been broken down 
by their exceedingly numerous progeny. Rise higher 
in the scale, and the married have fewer children and 
less frequently. Rise still higher and higher in the 
mental scale, and you can easily believe the time will 
come when reproduction will cease". There will then 
be fathers and mothers with their descendants; and 
the progeny will become a"S the angels — " neither mar- 
rying nor given in marriage' 5 — having arisen above the 
mission of propagation — all ready for the wondrous 
apotheosis which will close the scene of the human 
race. 

In the vast future (I wish I had another hour this 
morning, in which to speak of what will happen between 
this and the future,) when the race itself has grown to 
the highest point of maturity. Behold at last a family 
group ascends from the " perfect sleep" into the Upper 



80 MORNING LECTURES. 

life ! They close the terrestrial drama, and the cur- 
tain falls. The great bell of chemistry is now struck, 
and instead of a conflagration, as the " Adventists" 
believe, slow decomposition — dying like a puff — decay- 
ing and dropping asunder like the stump of a tree with- 
out vitality — then spreading its atoms over millions of 
solar bodies that are ready to grasp these chemical 
opportunities — thus this planet will cease, and its popu- 
lation, all in the Summer-Land, looking down upon the 
closing of this sublime tragical drama ! 

The cerebellum, I again remark, will one of these 
days cease to have any function with reference to repro- 
duction. The finest, most poetic and spiritual mind, 
gathers nearly all of its propagating powers and essen- 
ces into the front-brain and top- faculties. Such persons 
have few children. Men who are yet full of the world's 
blood, and women who are full of similar vitalities, 
still believe that many children, better propagated, 
would be great blessings to the world. Only friends 
of Progress dare to speak the whole truth on this sub- 
ject. Not a church-minister in the city, with the vast 
organization of moneyed men to support the pulpit, 
dares to speak the truth which lies at the basis of 
the happiness of mankind. 

But friends of Progress are free to speak. We 
sing new songs. We have new wings of great princi- 
ples just starting. We are ready to soar wherever the 
truth shall attract. We have free feet ready to scale 
the highest mountains. We are a glad and cheerful 
people, with unbounded hope. To our eyes the 
heavens are open, and our souls are filled with the 
attractive inspiration of the future. All this brings 



THE END OF THE WORLD. • 81 

us joy and peace in the midst of carnage and confusion 
in the physical world. The true harmonial pro- 
gressive Women and Men stand unruffled and 
unchanged. They know that, in the far-off future 
time, the better will dominate what is merely good ; 
that the best will dominate the better : that fruits and 
flowers will yet blossom in the wilderness ; and that, 
from out of the earth's dark places, the white lilies of 
peace shall bloom with an immortal beauty. 
4* 



THE NEW BIRTH; 

OB, 

THE SPIRIT'S PROGRESS IN TRUTH. 



"To commune with God amidst the beauty of earth, in thanksgiving, 
For life, health, our daily bread!" and, by second birth, 
A home in heaven." 

The first view of this question that comes before the 
ignorant mind is the supernatural. It is incorporated 
with all religious education, and has been strengthened 
by the psychological influence of all ecclesiastical teach- 
ers. Hence there exists in almost every mind an unde- 
finable conviction that the new birth — " a change of 
heart" — is a supernatural effect, produced by instru- 
mentalities differing wholly from those laws of growth 
which bring mankind into existence, which cause the 
flowers to burst into blossom and the sun to shine ; that 
in order to understand what is meant by a new heart, 
or to have the " mysterious experience of such a 
" change," we must come into a state different from the 
whole system of laws, causes, and effects, which charac- 
terize and regulate the unchangeable universe. 

Dr. Bushnell, a most classical expounder of the 
popular theory of the supernatural, holds the conviction 
that, above the will and reason of every person, there 
is a super-plane, an extra Divine sphere, differing from 
all the fixed natural laws and mathematical principles 



THE NEW BIETH. 83 

which move and systematically distribute the pondera- 
ble bodies of space. The supernatural, he would say, 
is the great voluntary system of God ; the involuntary 
portion is the system of Nature, which is an organiza- 
tion endowed with laws, and with characteristics and 
attributes and forces, without inter-consciousness to 
operate throughout the interminable periods of the 
future, as it has through all past eternities, in unvary- 
ing accordance with the fixed plans of the Infinite 
Mind. If anything should occur in the departments of 
human nature contrary to the established laws and^ 
legitimate effects, it is a " miracle." It is furthermore 
held that God reserves to himself a realm of voluntary 
powers, with which, whenever in the depth ^of wisdom 
and love it seems best, he volitionally interposes, sus- 
pends, repeals, reverses, subverts any of the fixed laws 
of Nature — breaking them utterly — otherwise miracles 
would never occur, and the supernatural world would 
not be revealed and vindicated. Dr. Bushnell has 
probably given as complete an exposition of that side of 
the subject as can be found in the language, although 
necessarily very unsatisfactory and irrational, because 
the subject itself is involved in mazes of the greatest 
obscurity and superstition. 

No miracle is possible without conflict with the 
established atomic laws of the physical universe. 
Whatever occurs in harmony with the requirements of 
any of these laws, is no miracle ; though the occurrence 
might be a higher manifestation of the same general 
plan, not before fully understood. The definition of a 
miracle would be the development of something in con- 



84 MORNING LECTURES. 

tradiction, in antagonism, with the immutable atomic 
affinities of the physical universe. 

The controversy between Progressive minds and the 
Church-people turns exactly on this one point,- viz., 
whether Deity ever contradicts the established laws of 
the physical and spiritual universe ? Did he, or does 
lie ever suspend the operation of natural principles, in 
order to accomplish anything for the especial benefit 
of any class of people, or for the sake of any particular 
person ? 

Desiring to ascertain the exact truth of the ques- 
tion, we have gone into investigations of what, in the 
past, have been accredited as " miracles," and which 
have ecclesiastically been and are yet considered mar- 
vels absolutely necessary to substantiate the peculiar 
claims and Messiahship of Jesus. The theory is, that 
he depended very much on these " signs and wonders" 
to arrest the attention of the people, and thus lead 
them, through their marvelousness, to a perception of 
higher truths. The different Churches say that the 
test of his Messiahship — the evidence that he was sent 
as the only begotten of God to humanity — is the super- 
natural power displayed in his miracles ! 

Now, we have investigated and analyzed this chap- 
ter of Bible-miracles, which these churchmen dare not 
do. They sometimes confess that they dare not take a 
miracle and probe it to its primal elements. Some 
clergymen cannot always afford to follow the plain 
truth ; others are constitutionally cowardly ; and others 
are intellectually incompetent; whilst many of the 
evangelical school eat too much, and are indolent. But 
Progressives have freely examined the question of 



THE NEW BIRTH. 85 

Bible-miracles, with a sincere desire to know " what is 
truth/' and they find that there is nowhere recorded, 
either in the Old Testament or in the New, a transac- 
tion which, in any possible degree, violates the estab- 
lished order and fixed laws of Nature. If any one 
among you know of miracles, or fancy that you know 
of positive events, in direct contradiction to the 
unchangeable principles of human nature or of the 
physical universe, you should at once give a full exposi- 
tion of what you think you know on the subject. 

" A change of heart" — in the fact of which we 
firmly believe — is no supernatural manifestation of 
God's grace. We very earnestly believe in a " new 
birth ;" yea, in a succession of new births. We believe 
that there are many individuals*who need to be born 
again and patched up a good many times to be anybody 
worth mentioning. This is true because there are so 
many persons who seem to have been badly born from 
the first — " conceived in sin and brought forth in ini- 
quity/' 

But there are other natures born in righteousness. 
We thank heaven for these beautiful bows of human 
promise, even though they come without especial 
intention or merit on the part of their progenitors. 
Halos of immortal effulgence now and then flash forth- 
through the beautiful birth of approximate Saviors. In 
music, in art, in science, in philosophy, in every 
direction towards which human interests tend, or from 
which human needs are supplied, we behold well-born 
and highly-endowed sons and daughters of wisdom and 
liberty. A highly endowed person may be surprisingly 
"well-born" in one particular respect, and yet may 



86 MORNING LECTURES. 

remain uneonceived in almost every other department 
of mind and soul. 

No, we do not accept the doctrine of a supernatural 
spiritual conception, nor a new, miraculous birth. We 
hold that man's mind is so constituted as to desire 
sensuous Knowledge and also beautiful Wisdom, or 
wise Knowledge, which is spiritual Understanding. It 
is natural for man to desire to expel ignorance from his 
mind. The soul throws a power from the center of its 
being, saying to ignorance: "Get thee behind me!" 
and then, turning to heaven, it says : " Give me under- 
standing, I entreat Thee ; and give me also wisdom ; 
and oh, give me power, and true knowledge also, by 
which that power can be made executive and practi- 
cal." The desire to Know, is the first implanted ambi- 
tion of the intellectual faculties. Useful knowledge is 
the next demand ; then knowledge that is consistent, as 
well as useful ; then beautiful knowledge, as well as 
consistent ; then spiritual knowledge, as well as beauti- 
ful ; then knowledge celestial, as well as spiritual — 
these are the gradually awakening prayers and unde- 
finable longings of the perpetually-borning human 
spirit. 

There are persons who pass on for years, feeling 
only a feeble desire to know more — to have less igno- 
rance in common, every-day concerns. It is not 
important to them whether they know " the whole 
truth," so long as they have the common-place ex- 
changes of a talkative society. To this end they take 
the established Quarterlies, read the political pamphlets 
and the fashionable periodicals, and peruse such por- 
tions of the daily papers as inform them concerning the 



THE NEW BIRTH. 87 

common doings of the world. Such information seems 
to be a complete gratification to many minds. On 
Sundays they attend some established church, and 
during the brief moments spent there they hear music, 
and come under the influence of devotional prayers, or 
listen, it may be, to an eloquent, a beautiful, and per- 
haps a spiritual sermon, and, for the time being, such 
minds feel vague longings for something more " inte- 
rior" which they do not consciously possess. But they 
hasten home to dinner. That settles all the fine emo- 
tions that were excited. Down they drop into their 
newspapers, and presently into a solid, snoring nap, and 
on waking, find themselves the persons they were after 
business hours on Saturday night. Others become 
excited^ They feel enthusiastically warm all through- 
out their beating hearts. They feel that the physical 
dinner cannot come between them and the blessed truths 
of heaven. They go devotionally to their rooms to seek 
the Lord in prayer. Then they come under the influ- 
ence of a new psychology; a finer feeling has com- 
menced to flow from the mysterious fountains of spirit. 
They wish to know the will of their heavenly Father — 
beautiful, loving, saving justice, power, purity, and 
truth, which are God. Holy emotions rise from the 
depths of the spirit and set the moral faculties in action, 
and the whole religious group of organs bow them- 
selves reverently before that newly-awakened desire to 
be at peace with God. With deep sincerity such minds 
go to their closets, shut the door, and prostrate them- 
selves in prayer, or pray themselves into prostration. 
They attend the revival-meeting both day and night, 
until, like one of our celebrated pugilists, the over- 



88 MORNING LECTURES. 

joyed heart rises and boldly declares itself " saved by 
God," through the supernatural interposition of the 
sanguineous sweat of the Vicarious Redeemer. And 
the upshot of this excitement is called " a change of 
lieart!" 

Some are only spectators. Some have been through 
the mill. Others have been concerted and "born 
again" a good many times. There are persons in all 
communities who have had the mysterious bewilderment 
of this experience, and have come safely and reasonably 
out of it ; and they testify that, while in it, they were 
happier, but did not know as much; were not large in 
thought nor liberal ; but they felt warmer, felt kind- 
lier, felt a closer connection with something incompre- 
hensible and mysteriously sublime. Young hearts, 
between the ninth and twentieth year, are especially 
susceptible to such Methodistical conversions ; just as 
between the cradle and the twelfth year the physical 
system is susceptible to measles, mumps, whooping- 
cough, and kindred infirmities. I say there is an 
impressible period in each human life when a theologi- 
cal change of heart — a church-rousing among the 
young men and maidens — comes about and produces its 
devotional and probational effects as naturally as the 
little distempers of childhood afflict the tender physical 
organs. 

A man just begins to be somebody when he is 
plumply forty-five years of age. Before that time he 
has an uncertain history and an unsolidified character. 
A woman truly begins to be when she is forty. There 
is then womanly beauty and practical strength. The 
orb of life is truly balanced at this age in its path 



THE NEW BIRTH. . 89 

around the sun of Duty. Hopes have been disappointed 
and buried, and they have been also resurrected and 
educated. Ambition and vanity have been checked 
and chided many times; and baseless expectations of 
worldly victories have been driven and punished out 
of the temple. The person begins to comprehend the 
solid facts of life, and to feel largely and sympatheti- 
cally acquainted with the current wants, impulses, and 
experiences of human nature in general. After the 
fortieth year there occur few sudden conversions. 

Almost every religious person in Christendom can 
remember to have experienced something like 6i a change 
of heart." Now and then, however, some one has 
dropped over-board in the voyage, or stranded upon 
some cliff by the way, and therefore she or he has never 
sensibly drifted into the ecclesiastical current. Some 
have stood upon the shore of religion and contemplated 
the mysterious voyage in which others were embarking. 
They stand to-day and remark : " I never was taken 
into any Church ; I never was converted ; I have tried 
to be, but never could be." This is the experience of 
a few religious souls in Christendom. Large numbers, 
on the other hand, testify that they have passed into the 
mysterious experience of feeling a oneness with Deity} 
and a certain conscientious reconciliation with the 
spirit of the historic Redeemer. 

If you were intimately acquainted with the religious 
experience of the Mahommedans, Chinese, Chaldeans, 
or Persians, who have nothing essentially at war with 
the spirit of Christianity, you would recognize your 
own human nature with the same mysterious, sub- 
jectively spiritual experience, under the identical law 



90 MORNING LECTURES. 

of psychological contact with Deity. They also obtain 
and experience the " new birth/' or " change of heart." 
Many* religious souls have had this experience who 
never heard the name of Jesus— that " name" which 
many Christians consider essential to the ultimate 
safety of souls. 

That celebrated religious phenomenon, which Unita- 
rian missionaries obtained in the Eastern world — I mean 
Mr. Philip Chunder Jogut Gangooly, who probably 
cost about five thousand dollars to get him squarely 
converted, educated, and shipped to this country — 
testified that Christians, not excepting Unitarians, were 
in need of true knowledge relative to the leading doc- 
trines and ceremonies of Hindooism. He found the 
American people religiously ignorant — found that we 
knew but little, and what we did know was, like super- 
ficial drinking at the Pierian spring, calculated to 
make all a little drunk with religious feeling and con- 
ceit. His influence, however, had the effect of rendering 
our missionaries more eloquent and our bumps of 
benevolence more susceptible. Mr. Gangooly said 
nothing remarkable about a " change of heart." 

Bishop Colenso is a convert to God's preaching 
through the unsophisticated, but highly religious nature, 
of those far distant heathen children. They put ques- 
tions to him which he would not answer dogmatically. 
The noble bishop would " once more think of it." Once 
more the teachable teacher felt that he must study his 
own theories — go back again to the cardinal proposi- 
tions of his Church — down to the primal principles of 
his own long-cherished doctrines. And this accom- 
plished and noble-souled gentleman was sent by an 



THE NEW BIRTH. 91 

evangelical institution to teach its religious dogmas to 
the heathen, by which they were to be led to God ! But 
the entreaties of the heathen children led him prayer- 
fully to a re-examination, to a new analysis and mea- 
surement of his creedal propositions, and lo ! the result 
is " conversion" — a new birth in the heart of the good 
Bishop Colenso. And then Bishop Rochester attempts 
to send the news to the kingdom of heaven, through his 
formal prayers, and advises all the prelates and priests 
of that region to send like word, that poor Bishop 
Colenso has strayed from the fold of truth.* " Pray 
for him ! He is laboring under a soul-destroying 
heresy I" What evangelical ignoramuses ! what con- 
summate twaddlers ! what accomplished imbeciles ! 
Why, the priests and prelates are asked to pray against 
the very truths which those simple children of the Most 
High put to the susceptible and honest spirited Colenso ! 
The heathen converted the Bishop to a higher know- 
ledge of God. Let all men and women see in the 
teachable spirit of that excellent minister a beautiful 
example, and let them not be behind him in simplicity 
and integrity. "Are you quite sure" — they asked 
him — " are you quite sure, Bishop, that all who never 
heard the name of Jesus will eternally suffer ?" He 
could not reply, for he was not quite sure ! Sent by a 
great ecclesiastical power to teach the heathen, yet he 



* The Bishop of Oxford has recently addressed a pastoral letter to 
his clergy, in which he lamejits that Dr. Colenso has resolved to per- 
severe in the course on which he has entered, and adds, that while it- 
is a matter of deep thankfulness that no leaven of this unbelief is to be 
found in the Oxford Episcopate, it is not best to be contented with 
mere immunity from error. " Rather," says the Bishop, " let the sight 
of a brother so misled humble and warn us." 



92 MORNING LECTURES. 

was "not quite sure"! Let us thank God — God does 
not want us to thank him — well, let us be grateful to 
the Heart of all principles, for the. teachable, the 
beautiful, and child-like spirit of Bishop Oolenso, which 
caused him, with power, to say : " Dogmatism, depart ! 
These heathen children ask me if I am quite sure of 
.eternal suffering for all who have not accepted Jesus. 
No ! I am not sure P' Then he goes to his New Testa- 
ment ; goes in deepest prayer ; he prayed as good as 
the best of you can pray, and with as sincere a heart ; 
and he finds therein what he never found before, viz., 
that the Divine never designs to cast off anything per- 
taining to the constitution of the human soul ! He finds, 
on the other hand, that the truths and real revelations 
of the New Testament are worthy of the paternal Soul 
of the universe. He says, therefore, to ail the world: 
"I am a new man." And we respond, Amen ! He has 
experienced a "new birth." And yet the dogmatic 
Church, which holds that the new birth is essential for 
a .sight at the kingdom of heaven, is bowed down in 
lamentations over his conversion ! Presently another 
class of religionists will undertake to wheel the Bishop 
into line with their peculiar forms and notions. 

If I were able, I would speak with an emphasis of 
ten tons to the square inch, so that the whole world 
should hear that the system of Christianity — I say 
" the system," not the spirit, remember — as it is to-day 
preached and presented to mankind, is, generally 
speakirig, just as monstrous a piece of quackery as any 
practice we find in the discordant world of medicine. 
Christendom is filled with ecclesiastical quacks and 
charlatans on this very subject of " the new birth." 



THE NEW BIRTH. ■ 93 

You cannot in American cities walk over five hundred 
yards without noticing a new sign up, announcing a new 
method of introducing you into the kingdom of heaven. 
The Methodist differing from the Episcopalian, the 
Presbyterian from the Baptist, the Quaker from the 
Universalist, the Congregationalist from the Uni- 
tarian ! 

Every one who reads the Bible — as I am glad every 
educated person can in the independence of conscious- 
ness and reason — sees in it precisely what his or her 
state of mind makes apparent, and that is all. A man 
will see its teachings literally or figuratively, symboli- 
cally or spiritually, Swedenborgianally or quite other- 
wise, in accordance with the elections of his state of 
mind. And he will furnish the " class-meeting" with 
descriptions of his religious and spiritual development, 
or new birth, in accordance with his intellectual cali- 
ber, education, and worldly experience. If his priest 
has impressed him to be a dogmatist, he will hold up 
the stupid sign and say : " Lo ! this is the only way to the 
new birth, and the shortest route to the kingdom of 
heaven." 

Friends of Progress should help men over all this. 
Let them understand that, by means of true spiritual 
growth, they can become united, and thus destroy the 
monstrous mistakes and expensive theological quacke- 
ries which infest Christendom. No wonder so many 
honest souls get so badly-horn in the conflicting 
Churches ! No wonder so many come out sanctimoni- 
ous and hypocritical, but not sanctified ! True, many 
tender-hearted converts in the Churches are inclined to 
be spiritual, and some of them are permanently im- 



94 # MORNING LECTURES. 

proved and benefited for life by the mysterious shock, 
coupled with the institutional or societary check ; but 
a far greater number, on the other hand, are rendered 
permanently small and limited in their understandings 
of the human world, of the great truths of Christianity ; 
and the life-long moral consequences are — bigotry on 
most questions, narrow-mindedness, social bitterness, 
and a squeamish or malignant protest against the 
onward work of Reformers. 

Now, all interior and common-sense men have prac- 
tical and similar understandings of the origin, nature, 
and validity of the " new birth." Many of them, how- 
ever, becoming utterly disgusted with supernatural 
theories, have gone to reading books of Medicine, or to 
reading Law, and have resolutely given up all specula- 
tive thoughts and the cultivation of all sentimental 
inclinations toward the popular Church, and toward 
spiritual things in general. Some of them still hold to 
progression and improvements in moral reforms, and 
such teach that the truest new birth consists in a true 
generation and a true exodus of both body and soul. 
"The true practical birth," say they — the only one 
which will save the trouble of all the pseudo-regenera- 
tive processes which the Churches have inaugurated, 
and do away with all the mysterious stragglings to get 
born again — "is to be perfectly born from the begin- 
ning." These results rest directly with the mother and 
the father — the true Joseph and the true Mary — who 
are to bring the gentle human Saviors into the world. 
The Christs are to be born from the spirit, without 
miracle, through the organs of human reproduction. 
There is to be a multiplication of Saviors, " both male 



THE NEW BIRTH. 95 

and female/' Instead of one being born every ten cen- 
turies or two thousand years, there will eventually be 
one born every ten years, and ultimately, every time a 
child is born the angels will sing." glad tidings of 
great joy/' for each child will be a Christ-spirit and a 
Savior. Let us, therefore, exalt woman's mission and 
situation, and esteem man as the all-embracing, exter- 
nal, protective, and positive sphere in which woman 
secretly performs her allotted duties. She is to be the 
Savior in the sense of being a fountain from which a 
stream, a river, a lake, a sea, an ocean of purer bodies 
and souls will flow for the progress and purification of 
the world. 

Is not this a practical doctrine of being born again ? 
You know that few people are well-born. Their 
spiritual genesis is defective ; their deformities are 
numerous — not only physiological defects, but also 
mental and moral. Henry Ward Beecher is physically 
hearty and morally stout enough — I am so glad that he 
has made himself also popular and sufficiently accepta- 
ble — to convert a Congregationalist pulpit into a public 
Sunday rostrum ! The accomplishment of that " new- 
birth' 5 in the functions of a pulpit is a decided indica- 
tion of his great inherent power, and of his great 
mastery over the feelings and thoughts of his hearers. 
xVnd in the freedom of his Congregational platform, he 
says, that a man born right the first time is very superior 
to the man who has been " converted" under the influ- 
ence of religion. (See Progressive Annual for 1862.) 
The converted man — notwithstanding the restraints of 
the Church and of Paul's gospel, and the additional 
checks to bad morals constantly dropping from the 



96 MORNING LECTURES. 

eaves of the sanctuary — is not so good a man as a man 
who was born good and rightly trained from birth. 
That is to say, a naturally good man is superior to a 
converted bad man in the Church. I am so glad Henry 
said it ! I wish all gospel-ministers were sufficiently 
stout in stomach and fearless in brain to make pro- 
gressive platforms out of their pulpits, and then preach 
the wisdom thereof to their astounded congregations ! 
Pity they are not more morally vigorous. They have 
not the power of God with them. That is the cause of 
their feebleness and bigotry. It would take twenty 
Trinities to give Protestant clergymen moral courage 
adequate to preach, investigate, and enforce new prin- 
ciples of human regeneration. But my Brother Beecher, 
on the Sunday Rostrum, notwithstanding his substra- 
tum of skepticism as to the existence of the Trinity 
itself, is yet enabled to announce a most thrilling prin- 
ciple of redemptive Truth. He is not afraid to tell the 
people that they had better propagate their children 
right from the start — not in " sin and in iniquity," but 
with the pure, beautiful, celestial principles of health 
and harmony in the body, and with the balance of 
righteousness in the spiritual organization. From 
thence goodness in the subsequent individual flows as 
from a fountain, while " conversions" do nothing more 
than modify and patch up that which, after all, at heart, 
is out of moral shape and due working proportion, and 
the crookedness of which cannot be straightened for a 
lengthened period in the Summer-Land. I wish my 
Brother Henry had also said that the morally mis- 
shapened and intellectually crooked do not quite 
recover until the Summer-Land pours its fine discipline 



THE NEW BIRTH. 97 

and its healing magnetism through and over the affec- 
tions and character. But he has not got so far. 

In the New Testament, in the third chapter of John, 
we find a most practical view of this question of a new 
birth, and yet it was given to mankind, as it were, acci- 
dentally, or as part of a common conversation. It 
makes one feel as though Nicodemus ought to receive 
the thanks of Christendom for the spiritual answers 
which his materialistic interrogatories elicited. Nico- 
demus was a distinguished Pharisee. The Pharisees, 
you know, were almost all dogmatic men, just like these 
American religionists and doctors of divinity. They 
held high positions, and filled all the important offices 
in Israel. Nicodemus was a Ruler. He had heard 
that the " young man 55 was teaching strange, mysterious 
doctrines through the country ; and, being a Ruler, 
like the Governor of one of our States, he went to the 
" young man/' and very politely asked him to " explain 
himself/' The Israelitish gentleman did not wish to be 
conspicuous in such a matter. Therefore, somewhat as 
Mr. Lincoln left Baltimore for Washington, so the 
Ruler put on an unusual coat, and a different hat, and 
away he stealthily went to have a religious talk with 
the son of Mary and Joseph. Said he to the spiritual 
man : " What is this doctrine of being born again ? 
What do you mean by it?" So spake Mr. Nicodemus. 
The "young man" held up the doctrine, -plainly, sub- 
stantially, that, " unless a man be born again, he can- 
not see the kingdom of heaven." Nicodemus first paid 
him a compliment ; for, said he, You are a very influ- 
ential, successful person ; you must be " of God/' You 
do these wonderful things — you accomplish these so- 



98 MORNING LECTURES. 

called miracles among the people— consequently, you 
must be a Son of God, and I am willing to call you 
" Rabbi/' or master. (Now-a-days we say " Mr.," 
instead of " Rabbi.") 

The Ruler was investigating " for himself." Said 
he : " What is the meaning of all this ?" Jesus gave 
him an obscure answer : " Except a man be born again, 
he cannot see the kingdom of heaven." Now, merely 
seeing the kingdom of heaven is not always satisfactory 
to one's spiritual cravings. You might see a very fine 
dinner in the next room, with a strong window between 
you and it, and you hungry and without money. Would 
seeing the dinner be calculated to satisfy the cravings 
of your appetite? Mr. Nicodemus did not seem to 
get much satisfaction out of the answer to his question. 
The theme itself was so extraordinary. fcC How can that 
be ?" he thought. He took things literally. Said he : 
" How can an old man enter back through physical 
organs and be born again ?" 

Nicodemus naturally enough supposed he had the 
" best of the argument." His common experience and 
materialistic views, assured him. Says he : " That is 
absurd ; I can bring medical books to show that the 
thing has never occurred." Jesus, on the contrary, did 
not need any medical books to convince him. He knew, 
by the light of Intuition, that the new birth in the 
Ruler's mind, was impossible. Miracles never occur. 
Jesus did not pretend that there was anything miracu- 
lous in his gospel of the new birth. He did not say 
that a man could possibly return and be born a second 
time through the physiological organs. He knew that 
such an event could not happen, any more than an 



THE NEW BIRTH. 99 

elderly man could swim back to the baby year and 
begin life again — any more than any event which has 
happened can be annihilated from the history of the 
past. 

Jesus did not admit that Nicodemus's thought was 
possible. But instead he said: " Unless a man be born 
of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the king- 
dom." That is something more comprehensible. A 
man cannot come to dinner unless he pays the price. 
He cannot come to this feast of fat things — cannot 
drink the wine on the lea well-refined — unless he walks 
through water and in the Spirit. 

Now of all this I believe that I never had any 
doubt. I believe it, and have long believed it, because 
it is utterly without miracle, and because the conception 
is so beautiful in itself. No spiritual person ever ques- 
tions that beautiful reformatory principle divulged in 
the third chapter of John. 

But Nicodemus was evidently astonished. He might 
have said : " I cannot make anything out of what you 
say; it is all incomprehensible stuff to me. I cannot 
comprehend your ideas about water and the Spirit" 
Then what did Mary's spiritual son do ? Why, he cited 
a very interesting illustration of it — that is, interesting 
to commentators who make it their business to expound 
Scriptures, but very obscure to those who ask the ques- 
tion. Said he : " You do not understand the wind's 
mysteries, neither do you understand this. You cannot 
understand whence the wind cometh, nor whither it 
goeth. So of every person born of the Spirit." That 
limpid explanation must have been very unsatisfactory 
to Nicodemus. He very naturally said : " Well, I shall 



100 MORNING LECTURES. 

never succeed in being born again. If I cannot under- 
stand the process any more than I can understand the 
wind, then I am a gone case ; for I certainly don't un- 
derstand either how the wind comes or how it goes." 
And so he went away no wiser. 

Missionaries who go out to teach the heathen, do 
not know any more about spiritual regeneration than 
did Nicodemus. When the affections of men are born 
again, the third chapter of John is of little moment. 
All truth is read with new eyes when the spirit is wise. 
If you be really " born again," the world's Bible, as 
well as Nature, will be new volumes to you. But you 
must be first born again, independently of the Bible, 
and become something within yourself, and then the 
Bible and Christianity will mean something more than 
a book and a system. The world also will become a 
new development to you from the day you become har- 
monious and new within yourself. The doctrine is 
plain and beautiful, that the new birth is not possible 
" except a man be born of water and of the Spirit." I 
am glad the account does not read " brandy and water," 
or " bread and wine ;" for then, to follow authority, we 
would have to spread a table and proceed to celebrate 
the Eucharist. He did not say a man cannot be born 
again, except through the use of bread and wine, which 
is only a Hebrew act of commemoration. That will do 
as a Passover. (I always pass it over !) A human 
heart is not born again by means of brandy and water, 
nor alone by means of the " spirit." In some Churches 
they dip " converts" into a large tank, simply because 
the Bible-text reads " water 55 ; and so baptizo becomes 
a very influential mystery in the regenerative vocabu- 



THE NEW BIRTH. 101 

lary. I am so glad that Jesus was led into Jordan. It 
seems to promise that, one of these days, people will 
adopt the rational means of securing physiological per- 
fection. There will be sweeter people on earth when 
bathing becomes universal. Swedenborg and all spiritu- 
ally-minded people say that water. is a beautiful emblem 
of purity, renovation, or regeneration. What a spark- 
ling element it is, going through the world, with immor- 
tal music on its bosom, flowing down mountain-slopes 
and forming cascades, and forever hymning gratitude 
and praise to Deity ! No man can enter into the king- 
dom of harmony unless he be born, first, through phy- 
siological harmony, or "water/' and, second, through 
the balance of his affections and faculties, or through 
the " spirit" of wisdom and justice. 

Many of us will know something more substantial 
about being "born again" one of these coming days. 
Mary's son put i; water" before " spirit," and so do we. 
It is true physiological reform. There is no mira- 
cle or mystery in it. He said : " A man (that is, 
anybody,) born < of water 5 — of physical cleanliness, 
physical neatness, physical harmony, and away from 
disease — and ' of the spirit 5 — that is, of the balance of 
the powers of the heart and faculties of the brain — such 
an one can enter into the kingdom of heaven. 55 (Have 
you tried it ? If you have not, suppose you begin to 
lest the truth of it to-day.) He says the Son of Man 
shall be " lifted up" — the only begotten of God. What 
is the only begotten ? It is the spirit of Truth issuing 
from this beautiful marriage between " water" and 
" spirit 55 — the nuptial union between " body" and 
" soul. 55 The power and the spirit of Truth rise out — 



102 MORNING LECTURES. 

the only begotten — and thus the individual is " lifted 
up. 5 ' Then what? No man can be lifted out unless he 
be first immersed in something. What is he lifted out 
of? Out from his personal Satans — out of sympathy 
with his unclean spirits — out of the pit of his demons. 
What are they ? Passions, appetites, and inversions. 
" The only begotten' 5 is the principle of Truth — rising 
out from the secret recesses of the superior faculties, 
and " lifting" man out of his passions and appetites, 
which are demons and unclean spirits. 

It matters not how great a man's reputation may be, 
if he is, to any extent, in bondage to his stomach, to his 
passions, to any bad habit or acquired appetite — such a 
man is not " saved." He realizes nothing of the new 
birth. A selfish man, a deceiver, a hypocrite — a man 
who lives in his family like a beast and before folks 
like a gentleman — has not experienced a change of 
heart. A swinish character always gets " lengthwise 
in the trough." He stretches himself at full length in 
the advantages of his homeland closes out the choicest 
friends of his wife and children. Or the fashionable 
religious woman, member of whatever Church, who will 
require the coachman to go out in the storm to drive 
her to Church, is not born again. And these women 
who work and slave, who are deprived of their just 
rewards, who labor in the kitchens, and who garnish 
the rooms where maidenly attentions are most required 
— these are cheated of an extra twenty-five cents a 
month by persons who go to some graceless church. 
And are such born again ? " Can't you work in my 
kitchen early and late for six dollars and a quarter a 
month ?" Bridget thinks she deserves seven dollars. 



THE NEW BIRTH. 103 

Who would labor for less ? (I would charge twenty, 
if 1 were Bridget.) It is the hardest thing in the world 
for an intelligent person to be Bridget, and to do 
Bridget's work. She ought to have ten or twelve, 
instead of six and a quarter dollars per month. But 
the favorite orthodox minister gets all the extra money 
which Bridget ought to have for her tedious labors. 
All because the religious lady of the house is not just — 
is not " born again" — but is under the dominion of 
popularity, style, fashion, churchianity, and orthodoxy. 
Look up these opulent Avenues, so full of dressings 
and great mansions. Do they not administer to the 
destruction of the principles of human liberty, justice, 
happiness, and fraternity ? Persons who live in them 
lose much of their simplicity of character, and they are 
not teachable. * They are unhappy and in " outer dark- 
ness." There are " weepings" in the basements, " wail- 
ings" in the bed-chambers, and " gnashings of teeth" 
whenever the large bills come in for payment. I do 
not wonder that they live in outer darkness, nor that 
they go to church to see whether there is anything 
" cheerful" in the prospect after a death by gout. The 
man who needs a Church, or the woman who needs a 
Minister, or the bishop who needs a Bible, or the reli- 
gionist whose feeble faith needs the bolster of a Mira- 
cle, is not born again. Such may have the form — the 
signs and symbols — but not the spirit of Truth. 

A new birth lifts the mind above dependence upon 
externals, for the " only begotten" in the spirit begins 
life by drawing upon the Infinite Father for truths and 
principles. A new birth, therefore, consists in a mar- 
riage between the affections and faculties of the social, 



104 MORNING LECTURES. 

intellectual, and moral nature. The spirit will produce 
its kind. Jesus also said that. Did he not say truly : 
" That which is born of the flesh, is flesh ; that which 
is born of the spirit, is spirit" ? Don't you believe it ? 
If -the Nazarene were in New York to-day, he would 
undoubtedly be thankful for an opportunity to re- 
announce that beautiful principle. Spiritualists would 
all enjoy it, and each would say : " Well, I have heard 
that before — a thing produces its kind." The physical 
body, however healthy and perfect, will produce only 
physical happiness. Aromal emanations from the pure 
body are always precious, life-giving, and beautiful ; 
but the harmonious human mind gives oif far sweeter 
aromal fragrances which elevate and chasten all who 
come within their celestial influence. 

Now the body — " water" — and the soul — " spirit" 
— become balanced and married. That is the true 
relation. When there is marriage between body and 
spirit, what is the result ? Progeny. Next comes a 
" new birth." Unless that true, private, interior mar- 
riage takes place, you will experience only an illegiti- 
mate birth. Many obtain such births in revival 
meetings. They deem themselves "converted." But 
think the subject all over, and see if you do not decide 
that all such "conversions" are illegitimate births from 
the spirit. Let there be a true marriage between the 
body and the' soul — be blended by " water and the 
spirit" — and then observe how purely the offspring is 
legitimate Truth. Then, truly, you begin to compre- 
hend high motives and ideas. First, whatsoever is 
good ; second, whatsoever is useful ; third, whatsoever 
is consistent ; fourth, whatsoever is beautiful ; fifth, 



THE NEW BIRTH. 105 

whatsoever is spiritual ; sixth, whatsoever is celestial ; 
seventh, whatsoever is heavenly and eternal. The truer 
your marriage, the higher and more beautiful your 
spiritual children. Just in proportion as you grow inde- 
pendent of externals — just in proportion as you rise out 
of passions, appetites, unclean spirits, and demons — in 
that same proportion you enter into the kingdom of 
harmony. No matter where you reside, or with whom'* 
you live, that glorious emancipation and consummation 
will be the result of your interior growth. 

Now, therefore, let us all go to work with " water" 
— I mean, let us cleanse out our affections. Water 
means purification. Regulate your bodily appetites, 
discipline your hidden passions, harmonize the action 
of your thinking faculties. Erect for yourself a high 
standard ! Set out for personal harmony ! You have 
a watch in the spirit. Just wind up that spirit-watch, 
and see that every second of time is kept right. Wind 
up your habits, and set your house in order. When 
you attain to " inward peace," you are born again. 
Then you can each live a spontaneous, easy, free, 
orderly, happy life. What will be the result ! Truths ! 
Beautiful children are they ! and ever and anon ano- 
ther " new birth." There is recorded on the blank 
leaves of the old Family Bible, by our parents, a 

memorandum, thus: "Born on the day, in the 

year of our Lord," &c. But there are theological 
births which occur under the psychology of the ortho- 
dox minister and pulpit. These theological births are 
seldom recorded in any book under the sun — most 
rarely in the "book of life." As before admitted, 
sometimes such a birth is a true one, and the person 
5* 



106 MORNING LECTURES. 

does begin to live a well-ordered and more beautiful 
life. Such cases are extremely rare. The rule is, as 
my Brother Henry truly said, that a man who was 
good before, is essentially no better after his "conver- 
sion. 53 

There are many " changes of heart" in one's life- 
time, and very many " new births." The marriage of 
the body to the spirit — this is a delightful birth. It is 
delicious harmony, producing what Epicurus termed 
" bodily ease and mental tranquillity." He never could 
have uttered and enforced the principle unless he had 
experienced its birth in his mind. Out of that marriage 
spring attractive and powerful truths ; the progeny are 
exceedingly pure and beautiful ! You can begin to count 
your new births from that time — the - birth of good 
truths ; the birth of useful truths ; the birth of consist- 
ent truths ; the birth of beautiful truths ; the birth of 
spiritual truths ; the birth of celestial truths ; the birth 
of heavenly truths ; the birth of infinite truths ; the 
birth of God in the heart ; and in all directions, eternal 
Progression. 



THE SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM 
OF HEAVEN. 



" Oh, restless spirit ! Wherefore strain 
Beyond thy sphere? — 
Heaven and hell, with their joy and pain, 
Are now and here." 

We start with the question, What does the religious 
world mean by the " kingdom of heaven" ? Almost 
every one's educational memory will answer that by 
the expression is meant, a place far off — the residence 
of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost ; a solemn 
celestial abode where mirthfulness is not permitted ; 
where persons appear as monks and nuns, beautifully 
arrayed in white, but always with a thoughtful, medi- 
tative, abstract, poetic appearance, and on their faces 
an indescribable expression of unsmiling, cadaverous 
piety. The whole population of the Paradisaical realm, 
according to the world's estimation, wear an unsport- 
ful, reverential, pious aspect ; all engaged in the same 
rapt devotions to the august family of Gods. It must 
be a cold and dreary place for human nature as it is 
now constituted ; a place of unbroken circumspection 
and habitual interiority. It makes us feel as though 
we were on the verge of an everlasting graveyard to 
think of it; the churchyard, with its white mementos, 
with its many reminders of that ghostly purity which 



108 MORNING LECTURES. 

is to characterize the few who ar£ saved by the blood 
of the Lamb. 

The religious world, you know, not only looks upon 
the "kingdom of heaven" as a place afar off, but also 
as a situation attainable alone by means of the superna- 
tural miracle of the atonement. Thus both the " king- 
dom" and the " road" are absurd to human reason and 
comprehension, and very properly the preachers repu- 
diate the independent use of Reason on such pulpit 
questions. The miracle of the Atonement constitutes a 
sort of Air-line railroad to the kingdom of eternal 
monotony ! No one pretends' to know how his reddened ' 
iniquities can be whitened. No one pretends to know 
why the angels will adore the blackest sinner the 
moment he arrives, via Atonement Railroad, and knocks 
at the great magical gate of St. Peter. It is all a 
stupendous miracle to the thick-headed sinner ; but the 
Church tells him, " Believe ; it is all the more gracious 
for its mystery, and all the more like God because of 
its incomprehensibility." And thus the stupid sinner, 
not having thought ten minutes consecutively on the 
subject since his birth, drops out of skepticism and rolls 
into the lap of that mysterious conviction, and next 
permits himself to fall into a slumber of dogmatic faith 
most deceptive, which the Church pronounces the 
" sleep of the blessed" — all, if only in his soul he adopts 
the Gospel of Miracle by which the consequences of 
all sins shall be purged away. 

In the course of my lectures on the "Summer-Land" 
it will be shown that no atonement-treated sinner 
realizes beyond the tomb, what these pulpit accoucheurs 
say he may in unbounded confidence expect to receive 



SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 109 

at the hands of the Savior. Memory is an undying 
thinking power, gathering its education from all the 
faculties, and from every thing or influence that ever 
touched them — a power which weaves and winds every 
impression up snugger, and snugger, and snugger — 
reeling all thoughts firmer and more close together than 
threads on the roll of the silk-spinner — all which is to 
be unrolled through all the post-historic labyrinths of 
the great future, standing at every moment in the tem- 
ple of personal consciousness as an accusing angel. And 
then, what men call " Conscience" — the sense of recti- 
tude which every faculty bestows upon its possessor — 
locks arms with Memory, and thus the two dwell 
always with the individual, however ideally dressed he 
may be ; however angelic in personal appearance ; how- 
ever accomplished in the scholastic arts and fashionable 
attainments. 

But we will not dwell upon that subject this morn- 
ing. I have but simply alluded to the world's theolo- 
gical conception of the miracle of " Atonement." How 
many believe it to be the directest road to the king- 
dom of heaven! My object in speaking on the point 
was to declare against that foolish and pernicious doc- 
trine of miraculously saving sinners from the legitimate 
consequences of sin. As a theory it is immeasurably 
worse than the system of the allopathic medical 
schools, which hold- that men are better for swal- 
lowing a dose of calomel on every disturbance of 
the liver. This error is not a whit more pernicious to 
the body than is the doctrine of the ecclesiastical 
schools, that " faith" in the vicarious atonement i3 per- 
manently good to save mankind from the consequences 
of sin in the soul. 



110 MORNING LECTURES. 

To enter directly upon the subject, I will call your 
attention — 

First : To the fact that every person has an Ideal, 
which to realize would, in that person's opinion, consti- 
tute " perfect happiness," and perfect happiness is the 
usual understanding of the " kingdom of heaven." 
Every one will remember his or her Ideal. An ideal 
comes, first, out of the particular organic structure of 
the mind. Second, out of the condition of the spirit 
which lives within that structure. So that a person's 
ideal is material or spiritual, little or large, just in pro- 
portion to the construction of mind ; and besides, the 
ideal will always represent the status of the spirit, 
which resides beneath those organs and behind those 
structural conditions. 

Second : Every person's Ideal is modified by the 
force and flow and shape of Circumstances. And hence 
the mind's Ideal will partake invariably of the image 
and likeness to the circumstances with which it is sur- 
rounded. 

Third : These influential and shaping circumstances 
of your organization, and then the conditions of your 
spirit, are what originate and modify your Ideal. All 
persons receive some form of education — all experience 
some kind of development of the internal powers. 
Much valuable education to the faculties comes by fric- 
tion, contact, imitation, and the force of discipline in the 
society of those about you. They constitute your severest 
teachers, and the effect of their painful teaching is edu- 
cation. Perhaps it will be a mis-education; perhaps 
an un-education ; perhaps a complete education ; per- 
haps it will be nothing but consciousness of unhappy 



SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. Ill 

ignorance and discord. But whatever the mental effect, 
which may be comprehended under the general term 
M education," that is sure to greatly modify the Ideal 
which your circumstances, your organization, and your 
spiritual status first developed within the sanctuary of 
the mind. And this " Ideal' 5 is the first thing for us to 
analyze, because its complete attainment, its actualiza- 
tion, the embodiment of the internal image, is the 
individual's conception of the " kingdom of heaven" — 
or, perfect personal happiness. 

In order to ascertain what is meant by the spiritual 
status, also what is meant by the structure of the mind, 
I will reaffirm the fact that man's spirit is constituted 
of several fundamental principles. These principles are 
internal and inseparable. Phrenologists have enumer- 
ated them up from 30 to 39 ; some have subdivided and 
counted mental organs to the number of 40. I am not 
impressed that this enumeration is the practical one for 
an internal and final, analysis. It has always seemed 
to me, nevertheless, that the classification of phrenology 
was valuable to the mind, inasmuch as thereby it came 
into a sort of external acquaintance with itself. These 
cerebral convolutions, formed and forming from within, 
are real indications of exercises in specific nerves and 
substances of the brain. Thus Phrenology demonstrates 
that these nerves are inhabited by mind, or spirit: and 
where the spirit is most exercised, there will take place 
and be visible the largest protuberance. Phrenologic- 
al classifications have been based almost entirely upon 
this understanding, that wherever there is a projection 
or depression, there the brain is either exceedingly 
much used, or greatly too idle* This organ-plan of the 



1 1 2 MORNING LECTURES. 

brain was primitively necessary ; and the Phrenologic- 
al classification will continue to be necessary for many 
ages. It is a kind of gate-of-invitation through which 
people can go easily in and out — thus, to some extent, 
forming an acquaintance with themselves, and particu- 
larly in a pre-eminently ^practical way. 

Now, if it be true that there are thirty-eight or 
forty brain-gates to your spirit, as the best phrenolo- 
gists say, then you will be obliged intellectually to go 
through each one in order to attain to a knowledge of 
yourself; not only so, but you would also be obliged to 
flow out through the brain-channels in order to express 
yourself truly to a wife, to a brother, to a sister, to the 
world in general. 

Now I think it is every one's conception that hap- 
piness consists in an equal development of the spiritual 
parts and physical organs, and the equal gratification 
of their natural desires. I suppose this to be the short- 
est and completest statement of wjiat would constitute 
the " happiness" of a person — the supply of every want 
without friction, and the gratification of every desire 
without exorbitant expense or excessive industry. In 
fact, the ability to bring ends to means, and to adapt 
physical conditions without friction to the requisitions 
of the spirit, would constitute the first, clearest, quick- 
est, directest fulfillment of the " ideal" of personal rest, 
peace and satisfaction with life — in a word, Happi- 
ness. . 

I wish now to show you that the realization of such 
an " ideal" is at present impossible on the face of the 
earth. But let me here mention that the fundamental 
principles of the human soul, according to the cassifica- 



SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 113 

tion of the Harmonial Philosophy, are only twelve in 
number. There are six fundamental principles of Love, 
and 'six of Wisdom. [See 3d vol. Harmonia.] The 
six radical affections are the ingredients, constituents, 
or the fountain sources from which flow life, motion, 
sensation, and also the mysterious consciousness of con- 
sciousness — the wondrous psychological fact that a 
human mind is conscious of its own consciousness — 
aware of itself — the ever present "I," which is the 
central reality. Hence the power of the human mind 
to go into deep solitude, and yet be in the midst of 
things. Hence the power of the human soul to retire 
on the far-off isle of the sea, and call poetry and music 
and thought and affection and friendship and philoso- 
phy and angels and Deity, all into its service and con- 
sciousness. These twelve faculties in the spirit, these 
twelve principles, are like all other principles, everlast- 
ing ; and not only so, but it is true that each separate 
principle makes a perpetual demand upon the everlasting 
universe in which it finds itself ever-recurringly con- 
scious ! 

Hence the doctrines in the intuitions of the soul that 
man essentially pre-existed, and also that he is destined 
to live after the destruction of all these physical 
appearances. It is this Intuition that gives the sense 
of weight about the spirit. The soul longs to leave this 
realm of dust and discord, and to sweep on through 
interminable spheres — endeavoring thus to realize her 
"treasured " ideal" by striving to attain to the ultima 
thule of the present aspiration. 

Each of these twelve radical and eternal principles in 
the constitution of the human mind makes, as I before 



114 MORNING LECTURES. 

said, requisitions more or less vivid, positive, and ener- 
getic, upon their individual possessor, and that, too, even 
in this state of existence. Out of their wondrous depths 
spring the onward-drawing " ideal/' which, attained, 
is termed " happiness," but which, not attained, is pro- 
ductive of unrest and dissatisfaction, and a feeling of 
incompleteness which ever and anon flashes painfully 
through and through the self-conscious mind. 

It is indisputable, I think, that " happiness" would 
result from the harmonious action and melodious blend- 
ing of all the faculties.* Discordant minds cannot be 
happy. Only those who travel without friction along 
the "shortest and directest road to the kingdom of 
heaven/ 5 can realize what it is to tread the high royal 
road that leads to happiness unutterable. But there is 
many a person who has the constitutional misfortune to 
be a sort of grindstone, revolving in the center of out- 
ward circumstances and weight. Such people not only 
make other people and things with which they come in 
contact awful sharp and severe in feeling and dispo- 
sition, but exceedingly like a cross-cut saw — working 
against each other with irresistible strength and with 
painful, destructive friction. Such minds reciprocate each 
other's favors by spinning and rasping off the surface- 
steel. They work and chafe and wear away the nap on 
the spirit of those about them, until they get down to the 
bleeding sensations of life itself, and then come the 
depressions of despair, with the feeling that the wound 
which is bleeding day by day in the family, under the 
very roof of apparent and reputed happiness, and in the 
society which is recognized as fashionable, can never be 
healed of the feud or forgiven the offense. 



SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 115 

Unrest is the testimony which the Eternal of the 
universe has implanted in the constitution of the spirit, 
saving, " You cannot spiritually die so long as there is an 
unsatisfied desire. Your life will continue so long as 
there exists within you a want that has never been met, 
a condition that has not been fulfilled, or great prophe- 
cies that have never met their entire satisfaction in the 
unfoldments of Science, Art,. or History." This intui- 
tion is one of the strongest arguments in favor of the 
immortality of the soul. 

Men undertake by prayer* to bring " the kingdom 
of heaven on earth." It is the old error in masonry of 
building an impossible temple, which the children of 
Babel first attempted in their ignorance, and which, 
as the story most beautifully illustrates, was a stupend- 
ously practical failure in materialistic religion. The 
ambition to make a mammoth broad-church balloon, to 
construct some theological Great Eastern, or to erect 
some skyward pointing temple upon which mankind can, 
without losing their present physical relations, reach 
the kingdom of Peace, is nothing but a foolish dream 
of error and ignorance. 

Perfect happiness, be it remembered, is the received 
definition of the kingdom of heaven. This is what all 
the- world is after, and it will have nothing less. But 
let me ask, Why do many apparently practical persons 
go " through hell" in order to arrive at the heavenly 
kingdom? Is it because they fancy that "the under- 
ground-railroad" in experience and religion, is the 
shortest and the safest way ? or is it because such per- 
sons err in their fancy and judgments as to the means 



116 MORNING LECTURES. 

by which happiness is attainable and procurable ? 
These questions are important. 

It is instructive to note the mistakes and errors of 
men respecting the means of happiness. I saw a man 
who supposed that his present happiness and success 
would be promoted by stealing a horse and riding swiftly 
across the State of Illinois to meet a companion who 
was expecting him. Not having the money to purchase 
a conveyance, and not being able to go in the regular 
way of travel, he attempted to secure his happiness by 
the adoption of spurious *and vicious means. He sup- 
posed that he would secure present comfort by securing 
his ends ; which, instead, secured him a great deal of 
physical confinement in jail ; for nothing like spiritual 
rest could issue from his mistake. At first he was 
intellectually infatuated by the conviction that if he 
could only but steal a horse he would be, for that time, 
at least, comparatively happy. Did he not sadly err 
as to the means of personal happiness ? Yet somehow 
I never supposed that that man designed to be evil — in 
fact, I believe he did not premeditate a crime, but 
adopted the readiest means of immediate success ? but, 
like hundreds of others, he found that the path of error 
and injustice is the most " hellish road" he ever trav- 
eled to reach the heaven of development. 

Once I met a young lady whose " ideal" was a 
mansion — one just out of Boston. She was beautiful, 
unmarried, the darling of rich and accomplished pa- 
rents ; the father a distinguished, influential banker, 
and the mother once a belle at Newport and often a 
central figure at Saratoga. In noticing this case it 
is well to recall our propositions. Her mind had 



SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 117 

inherited a peculiar structure, and the structure gave 
birth to .her ideal, and the ideal, borrowing itself from 
the spiritual status, declared that " perfect happiness" 
consisted in the splendid equipments and proprietor- 
ship of a beautiful mansion near Roxbury. I saw her 
and heard her ideal expressed several years ago. In 
three years from that time she was a wife, and in two 
years afterward (as I have been informed) she formally 
and proudly entered upon her ideal life in a great, rich, 
domestic establishment. I have heard of her twice 
since that year. Is she happy ? Just think of a " ma- 
terial house" for a spirit endowed with twelve radical, 
eternal principles ! That young wife's mind was har- 
nessed to her home, which rises up with mystic 
grandeur, and which is dressed from base to attic in 
the most fashionable style, with all the appliances of 
compound comfort and distressing luxury — indeed, so 
beautiful are the chairs, and sofas, and tete-a-tetes, that 
they had to be immediately clad in very common look- 
ing stuff, and so concealed were they that an observer 
hardly knew, without being told, whether the gorgeous 
furniture was made of anything superior to pine boards. 
Chestnut or red-oak saplings, whitewashed and dressed 
up in coarse brown linen, would have looked quite as 
weli. Beautiful things ! So costly, so exquisite and 
so fragible, that not a child dared to move round 
among them ; and as for grown persons, it was to them 
almost like treading upon the honey-combed edge of 
Vesuvius. The young wife was nervous all over the 
house. Her nerves were just as numerous and as much 
present in the bedroom as in the kitchen. I know a gen- 
tleman who said he had tried to find a place in that 



1]8 MORNING LECTURES. 

great splendid house where her nerves were not. Nerv- 
ous ladies are all so very happy in great city houses ! 
City doctors* know that many patients have had their 
" ideals" beautifully embodied in the possession of do- 
mestic splendors! Servants and waiting-maids know 
the ubiquitous nature of the nervous system. Dust ! it 
is the special horror of the soul with twelve radical 
principles. Well, there is, perhaps, a spiritual meaning 
in such abhorrence. If my friend Emerson were here, 
perhaps he would say it means the testimony of the 
spirit against the crude earth. That interpretation is 
poetical, philosophical, and constitutional. But the 
habit of being more conscious of dirt than of refinement, 
is the chronic difficulty with a great many people who 
pretend to be " perfectly happy" in great town or city 
dwellings. The cook in the aforesaid lady's house was a 
portion of her happiness, and the girl who kept the cook 
at work was another happiness, and so was the girl whose 
special duty was to see that the girl who attended 
to the cook did her work, and then the other girl, whose 
labor was to visit daily all the extra rooms, and to 
see that all parts of the house were exquisitely arranged 
and put " to rights" just ten minutes before two o'clock, 
P. M. — all parts of the lady's ideal ! It was all deemed 
necessary — all beautiful ! And when the time came for 
parties ! You know what exquisite joy there is in the 
flutter of a fashionable party ! And physicians know 
what a healthy pulse is, and they also know when it 
beats way up ten or fifteen beyond fever-heat, which is 
always the case when there is " perfect happiness" in 
the ideal possession of a great mansion, and especially 
when a Party is about to be inaugurated on a grand 



SHORTEST EOAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 110 

scale, "regardless of expense." Joy everywhere ! but 
not in the " ideal" of that mistaken, miseducated, but 
wealthy wife in old Massachusetts. She would not 
attend a lecture like this ; would not go to hear James 
Freeman Clark in Boston ; would never hear Theodore 
Parker ; thinks that the Devil, William Lloyd Garri- 
son, and Wendell Phillips, constitute the infernal 
trinity ! Oh, so " happy !" 

Once I met a gentleman whose ideal of "perfect 
happiness" consisted in roving o'er land and sea. He 
longed to get away from the perpetual embarrassments 
of home ; to throw off the entanglements of a wife who 
had borne him many children. At length he was at 
liberty, as he thought, to pursue his idea of happiness. 
So he started on a journey, which terminated in China ; 
then it lapped over and terminated in New York ; but 
he was scarcely perfectly happy yet ! Though he had 
all the bufferings of journeying and all the mishaps and 
losses of unfortunate enterprises, yet he found, on his 
arrival in New York, that " perfect happiness" con- 
sisted in doing almost the same thing right over again, 
only he had concluded that he would embark for a differ- 
ent port and on the other side of the rolling globe. I 
do not know how perfect his present happiness is, but 
I know that when he had made the tour of twenty- four 
thousand miles he reported himself, and said that jour- 
neying was a good deal of " a tax," and he would give 
it up if he had not acquired " the habit," which, like 
tobacco, must be chewed over and again in order to be 
perfectly enjoyed ! Poor fellow ! He has cherished 
that " ideal," working on through the dreary wastes of 
ice and snow in the Arctic regions, seeking in desola- 



120 MORNING LECTURES. 

tion for the experience of perfect happiness. It comes 
not out of his mistaken ideal. I asked him one day 
concerning his mother, and found that she had never 
been away from home long enough to gratify her desire 
for an excursion, and this desire was strongest in her 
just before his birth. Thus the great law of reproduc- 
tion is reaffirmed : her desire to take a journey not 
being gratified, became the source of misery every hour. 
She was relieved from it only by exhaustion and dis- 
ease, but never by a natural gratification of the imperi- 
ous desire. Inheriting this consequential construction, 
and also imbibing the spiritual status which that desire 
necessarily imparted, on the law of reflex action, to the 
depths of her nature, her child was unreasonably cen- 
trifugated from his wife, and from all the endearments 
of the family and home. The blind impulse actuated 
his thoughts and led him into the open field of loose, 
aimless, objectless journeying. Of course he is not 
happy. How can a man be happy who holds in his 
constitution twelve radical principles, when nothing is 
done to feed and gratify them save journeying over the 
outward world ? 

I know a person who supposed that marriage would 
be the climacteric point in the happiness .of the soul. 
Many there are who look upon that as the relation. 
All such are, I think, truly inspired with a sovereign 
and eternally important conviction. But those who 
expect that even the highest gratification of Conjugal 
Love will satisfy the eleven other mental principles, will 
find themselves mistaken in eleven parts of their exist- 
ence. I have known persons who sought the marriage 
relation and found it, and who considered that, at the 



SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 121 

time, it was the coronation of the heart ; but at length 
they found that the crown of happiness had not settled 
upon their heads, and that } 7 et other and equally im- 
perative demands were made from within. Ere long 
the unsatisfied pair quarreled with each other, because 
they had not wisdom to see that eleven parts of their 
existence could not be at rest and satisfied with the 
gratification of the one. There was restlessness in the 
eleven parts of their existence and complete gratifica- 
tion in only one; so they complained to each other of 
each other ; and from their discord came diabolism, 
and out of that a brood of Satans instead of angels ; 
and thus the conjugal home was rent asunder like the 
temple, because their idea of happiness was built upon 
a foundation of sand ; and although they were beauti- 
fully and truly married, and were, as a consequence, 
capable of building up the " harmonial union/' yet they 
sadly and madly separated, and will probably remain 
so until some divine attraction either brings them 
together, or else sets upon their hearts the seal of eter- 
nal divorce. 

How many beautiful love-temples you and I have 
seen, in the once happy home, all in ruins ! Temples 
of domestic conjugal happiness rent in twain by these 
great, burly ignoramuses, who have much money, but 
deficiency of judgment. Such men are strong in the 
arm, but " weak in ye head." And ladies, too, per- 
fectly accomplished in the externals — knowing by 
intuition what it is to love, and as well what it would 
be to be loved, but who have not met their mates on 
the philosophic basis; and so both men. and women, in 
all parts of the world, do not often travel on the 
6 



122 MORNING LECTURES. 

directest, shortest, safest road to the kingdom of 
heaven. Standing socially against each other like 
sworn enemies, the quarrel begins through the use of 
affectionate terms in excess, beautiful little epithetSv 
Even before persons they begin with a little curl of 
satire around the mouth, to name each other " My 
dove \" " my darling V " my precious !" Alas ! it is to 
be feared that they have each purchased a ticket on the 
under-ground railroad. All because the married do 
not know that conjugal love is but one-twelfth part of 
the individual's life and being. 

You know probably that I have been, for the last 
fifteen years, so related to the public as to receive ap- 
plications from persons in every imaginable situation. 
Some have lost faith in prayer ; they do not believe in 
the confessional, nor in the dismal doctrines of the 
Protestant clergy. Many such minds do not know what 
is best for them to do. Some of them frequently visit 
" mediums ;" others go to " clairvoyants," who have 
some secret knowledge of things, persons, &c, and may 
be able to vouchsafe true counsel. I have received 
almost innumerable letters from every class of persons. 
(My correspondence during the past ten years is a 
remarkable chapter in the history _of human spiritual 
necessity.) I have sometimes almost commiserated the 
orthodox God, if his ears had to hear those selfish 
prayers that are uttered during the weakest and most 
contracted and foolish days, hours, and moments of 
men's lives. Awful is the internal history of human 
shallowness which the world's prayers betray — so full 
of practical imbecilities, of insanities, of special self- 
interest, of inexpressible follies among people who 



SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 123 

really have reputations for being sensible — men praying 
for God to do for them what they would not of them- 
selves deem reasonable for any brother to ask of them. 
I remember the case of a lady whose " perfect happi- 
ness" she thought would consist in becoming a mother. 
Some two years afterward she became a mother, and I 
distinctly recall the experiences which she related. 
After the second year, she found that perfect happiness 
would consist, not so much in being a mother, but in 
knowing for a certainty that her darling little Eddie 
would grow up to be " a good man." She was exceed- 
ingly anxious to get away out of the city into a beauti- 
ful little retired place, where no bad children could 
molest him or teach him bad habits, but her finances 
forbade it. Hence the lady's " perfect happiness" on 
becoming a mother was nothing but the beginning of 
solicitude, anxiety, and unrest. 

Now, what was that good lady's error ? I need 
not mention it. You know that she had eleven other 
elements in her spiritual organization which a child 
could never more than partially gratify. Parental love 
is one, and only one of the radical principles of the hu- 
man spirit ; and even when that is • perfectly gratified 
there are yet remaining eleven others which have equally 
imperative demands that " will not down at your bid- 
ding." And the lady's error was her irrational belief 
that her " happiness" would be complete with the grati- 
fication of one-twelfth part of her nature. There was 
her mistake, and it is the error of thousands. Indeed, 
this illustrates the entire secret of nearly all human 
mistakes. The error consists in mistaking the means 
of happiness. By the attainment of one point you 






124 MORNING LECTURES. 

thence proceed on the false notion that all the other 
parts of your nature will receive corresponding gratifi- 
cation and be at rest. 

How many are there who are made "perfectly 
happy" in the actualization of the " ideal" that fortune 
or wealth is in itself the only important ultimate ! You 
know how few there are who are made truly happy in 
that way. Many there are who wish to-day to try the 
experiment of acquiring property. John Jacob Astor 
attained his "ideal." I suppose that many of you 
remember what his past testimony was — he merely 
received " his victuals and clothes ;" and yet he was the 
man of fortune. The more fortune, the more the slave. 
When the cares of property multiply and replenish - 
themselves in your path, the greater becomes your ser- 
vitude and the further you recede from the kingdom of 
true peace and happiness. I am glad that Mary's and 
Joseph's son saw and uttered this spiritual truth. No 
merely rich man, with his money-bags " strapped upon 
his back," could enter heaven any more than could a 
camel go through the eye of a needle. When the young 
man of fortune came to him and declared that he had 
done all the unutterable things, had performed all the 
virtues and made all the trips to obtain happiness, then 
the Spiritual man said, "Sell what thou hast" — that is, 
put it beneath you, make it subservient to true human 
interests, let it not be your master. That is what is 
meant by selling your " possessions." It is not neces- 
sary to throw away your property upon Thomas, and 
Richard, and Henry ; but the true way is to use your 
wealth for good purposes, and not be used by it. The 
Harmonial Philosophy teaches that self-possession — 



SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 125 

true self-ownership— is one of the paths leading to the 
shortest road to the kingdom of heaven. 

I know many citizens who are made corporeally hap- 
py by the wealth of others. At least a hundred and fifty 
persons are made daily more comfortable, their exist- 
ence is made to them vastly more tolerable, and their 
paths of labor are strewn with perfumed flowers,- all 
because certain good property-men are not servants to 
their riches, but they have " sold all they have" — that 
is, they have become spiritual philosophers, and are 
using their means with discretion and with gratitude, 
for the augmentation and expansion of human happi- 
ness. That is for them the " shortest road ;" they walk 
therein ; and such men are, therefore, always philan- 
thropic, cheerful, and happy. 

I know a man of this stamp who has a beautiful 
social and moral presence ; his very breath is imbued 
with purity and benevolence, like the fragrance of 
roses. Such a human spirit has in itself the beautiful 
realization of sitting down in the kingdom of heaven 
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob — a sweet, harmo- 
nious, largely magnanimous character, beaming and 
graceful out of his goodness. I also know ladies of 
this noble, regal, heavenly pattern. They generously 
give of their abundance, but are not the less wealthy. 
They do not squander on personal ornamentation ; nei- 
ther do they throw away riches without thought into 
the treasuries of old Missionary Societies, when it 
requires $4.99 to pay the expense of one cent to the 
heathen. Nay, nay. They give their money to the 
worthy objects that are within their gates, or to cases 
of want just within the radius of the eye, and to humble, 



126 MORNING LECTURES. 

industrious poor who come within the reach of the 
spirit. 

I wish, therefore, to bring to your mind clearly and 
distinctly, without one exception, that the secret of 
happiness consists in removing unnecessary friction in 
one's own pathway, and in assisting to remove it from 
the pathway of others. Whoso doeth such deeds is a 
possessor of tickets on the shortest, safest, directest 
road to the kingdom of heaven. 

First, however, it is philosophical to take it for 
granted that this world cannot bring you the perfect 
and complete realization of any one of your interior 
"ideals;" and, secondly, that an ideal which is but 
partially fulfilled can never fully satisfy the twelve 
radical elements of the human spirit. Hence your na- 
ture demands a Sphere of life after death for the pur- 
pose of growth. Mankind are made upon imperishable 
principles, each one of which is the harmonial voice of 
God, which speaks through all parts of the tree of life, 
moving its leaves in the winds of circumstances, and 
vibrating them in the currents of terrestrial affairs. 
Each one of these principles, I repeat, is a word from 
heaven — from God's own central spirit — saying, " Your 
best ideals are not attainable in three score and ten 
years ; no, nor in a century, neither in a hundred cen- 
turies, nor in myriads of millions of ages, through all 
which time you will yet be young in the Summer- 
Land. 

The Spiritualist is a philosophic believer in eternal 
life. He cannot help it. Every voice from heaven 
proclaims eternal ideality^ and, at the same time, gives 
promise to reason for an eternal opportunity for actuali- 



SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 27 

zation ! It is this fundamental, natural, spontaneous, 
intuitive logic — dominating all the schools of Material- 
ism — that will not down to any man's argument, which 
is the upwelling revelation of truth from within, 
that no ideal, however perfectly realized, can satisfy 
the whole spirit ! And this dissatisfaction, this unrest, 
this yearning, is a premonitory symptom, so to say, of 
the future which is in store for -man's mind, and which 
must open, like a flower in the garden of truth, to 
receive and welcome man to the inextinguishable light 
of the future. By planting yourself upon these twelve 
radical principles, the destructive friction of the present 
will be measurably removed, and at once you will find 
yourself a pilgrim on the shortest road. 

No man can be perfectly cosmopolitan and wholly 
catholic. No man can do all things with equal skill, 
pleasure, or profit. A natural merchant cannot be as 
good a mechanic ; it is neither easy nor pleasurable for 
him to be. It is not easy for a natural musician to be 
a successful merchant, nor for a mechanic to be a suc- 
cessful musician. It would not be easy and pleasurable 
for Blondin to enter the pulpit, nor for the devotional 
minister to be a pugnacious and logical lawyer, nor for 
the natural lawyer \p enter upon the practice of medi- 
cine. It is not easy for man to take the position of 
woman, neither is it easy for woman to merge out into 
externalisms and do battle with the entanglements 
which give pleasure to the physical man ; but, at present, 
each one is hampered and bound to a special sphere, 
neither realizing the implanted "ideal." For the 
present stage of human progress this incompleteness is 
necessary and unavoidable. But by removing friction^ 



128 MORNING LECTURES. 

the life which we are all involuntarily leading will be 
more freighted with solid happiness. The road of life 
would be less dusty and more attractive. And then, 
most of the present iniquities and miseries which clog 
and throng our way — the stumbling-blocks of igno- 
rance in each one's path on earth — would be utterly 
destroyed. If, for example, you have any habit which * 
causes your daily physical and domestic life to be a 
source of annoyance, down with it ! Because, by inherent 
strength, you are " master of the situation." 

There is no primogeniture in this harmonial doc- 
trine. No man inherits special wealth and extra power 
because he is the oldest son in the family of God. No ! 
Every man and woman inherits equal wealth and power 
from the innermost. Every one is born with an equal 
fortune. Alas ! some there are among us on earth who 
yet live in the slumberous quietude of idiocy, leading 
only an imbecile life ; others there are, among all races 
of civilized man, who have not yet escaped beyond the 
animal plane of feeling and conduct. But it is your 
prerogative to look from a high standpoint, and with 
great tenderness, upon the less fortunate in the world. 
Kemember that each human brain is a nest of eggs des- 
tined to hatch out twelve immortal doves, which are 
twelve radical, impersonal Principles. Your mission is 
to remove " stumbling-blocks," not only out of the way 
of your individual paths, but the paths of others—- 
not merely not to " lay a stra 1 ^ in the path" of your 
neighbor, but to take away straws that some other less 
spiritual person has laid there to work a brother's or 
sister's misfortune. Take them all away ! Down with 
your Satans! (I mean your Appetites and your Pas- 






SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 129 

sions.) Of course I do not advise any one to attempt 
to live without appetites and without passions ; but this 
is the point : let no man or woman be mastered and 
overcome by them. Put all" unclean spirits" beneath 
your feet ; bruise the serpent's head, crush and kill 
him. 

If you belonged to these popular pagodas — if you 
worshiped in these temples of the gods that are without 
these walls — I could not " preach" to you such things. 
You would be unfriendly to the ideal of progress, and 
would have a different conception of the object of life ; 
and as for your sins, why, you would expect happiness 
only by and through the " atonement." But I will ask 
you, friends of Freedom ! whether, standing as you do, 
firmly and independently on your own feet — feeling all 
the way up your back the ascending vertebrae of har- 
monial and independent life, each vertebra representing 
a round in a Jacob's ladder on which influences descend 
and ascend — the brain being a nest of the faculties to 
be hatched into immortality— the whole a conscious 
oneness — standing thus, are you to consent to be mas- 
tered by "demons" and "satans" that are nothing but" 
personal passions, and by " unclean spirits" that are 
nothing but your own over-indulged appetites ? Never! 
You know as well as I that the " shortest road to the 
kingdom of heaven" is to become master of your own 
proper person ! Whatever your situation in life, whether 
you reside in the city of New York, or away in some 
rural home — whether your business is to cook or pro- 
vide dinner for the family who employ you, or whether 
you are partaker of a dinner which others have pre- 
pared — in either case, as under every temptation, your 
6* 



130 MORNING LECTURES. 

spiritual mission should render you " a peace-maker," 
and thus remove friction. By so doing, or even by 
so desiring to do in secret, you shorten the road to the 
kingdom of heaven, not only to yourself, but for every 
other human pilgrim on the globe. 

And yet, let no one suppose that he or she is to 
be "perfectly 55 happy in this world. It is a shallow, 
idiotic, and illogical dream ; it is the very opposite, the 
antagonist of the doctrine of universal progress. What 
is a perfectly contented person ? What sort of a mind 
is that which feels no onward-drawing needs or wants ? 
It is an idiot, with no ambition to move from its 
place — a nobody ! What brought you out from your 
warm homes on this cold, wintry morning ? Because 
you thought you would be happier by coming • to this 
Hall. What is that which will soon take you away 
from this Hall? Because, when this discourse is 
finished and the choir have sung, you will then think 
you will feel happier to go away. Whatever motive 
immediately moves you, it is all traceable to that im- 
pulse within which dominates logic — the spirit of 
" change, 5 ' of " progress, 55 of " development, 5 ' which 
rises higher than the highest steeple in this city, say- 
ing, "Onward! father, mother, brother, sister. 55 And 
onward you go into the open air — and away toward 
other attractions, Central Park, Brooklyn, to the meet- 
ing of friends, to your home — anywhere, to get happi- 
ness. Never perfect after all ! 

Well, that is what you should always expect, and 
not be disappointed. For myself I am glad that I find 
just what I philosophically know that I shall find, not 
" perfect happiness,' 5 but the present partial gratifica- 



SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 131 

tiou of honest, healthful desires — just this, and nothing 
more, nothing less, unless I should greatly err in the 
use of means and opportunities. 

Can you not, therefore, be rational ? To be rational 
in everything is a ticket on the " shortest road to the 
kingdom of heaven. 55 Try the opposite course. Make 
the worst of your life, as millions on the earth do, for 
want of true knowledge of means, uses, and opportuni- 
ties. Some shallow heads think it is very fine to be full 
of taste and full of petulancy ; they fancy it is smart to 
be able to scowl at every annoyance, and to wrinkle up 
the thoughtful brow, and to make decided speeches with 
inflated language on very small occasions ; very smart 
to use the word " infinite" about the limited varieties 
of pocket-handkerchiefs ; and lastly, it is the hight of 
sense and of fashion to join the vast army of ladies who 
go shopping at Stewart's great Broadway agony. All 
this looks to many people like being as high in wit and 
happiness as anybody can be outside of pandemonium. 

I tell you now the day will come — and each of you 
will remember it after it passes as well as the fact of 
being here this morning — when mankind will look down 
upon all this externalism with unutterable contempt, and 
not less with self-sorrow and unpardonable shame. 
Why should this be ? Because such a life is unworthy ! 
That is the reason, and it is suflicient. Every intelli- 
gent person knows that the " shortest way to the king- 
dom of heaven" is, not to expect in this world the 
perfect fulfillment of any one " ideal/ 5 but, instead, to 
remove friction from the track of progress, to be indus- 
trious and comfortably happy in the midst of what you 
may have — this is the surest and safest side- road leading 



132 MORNING LECTURES. 

toward what is better and superior in the straight and 
harmonious way. 

I stand before you as an illustration of the truth of 
what I am now affirming. I will not refer to my his- 
tory — every step of which is a living demonstration 
that a man can come from the darkest place in the 
social Egypt and find the promised Land. In the supe- 
rior condition of mind a man can stand on his own feet, 
the proprietor of those great truths which no man's 
material wealth can purchase. A person with such a 
history may stand as a representative merely — a kind 
of philosophical promise — of what is possible in the ulti- 
mate of every human life ! Let all welcome whatso- 
ever gives hope to the millions. 

And now, Sisters and Brothers, it is just as easy to 
commence from this hour as any future time. Com- 
mence to make the best, and not the worst, of what is 
yours or what may come. Shorten the road to human 
happiness, and you will greatly lengthen the duration 
of human life. Do not wait for the future. Begin 
to-day ! Now, from this moment, say, " I will not be a 
grindstone ; I will rather be a fountain and a day- 
spring on high. I will not be a moon to anybody ; I 
will be either a sun or a fixed star." 

Can you not say so, and indorse it by practice? It 
will sweeten and strengthen your feelings as soon as 
you commence. You will look in the mirror with 
vastly more satisfaction. How few wrinkles there will 
soon be on your face ! How much cleaner and purer 
your skin is ! The eye looks beaming and cheerful, 
and there is a clear, heavenly light in it, which testifies 
that you have adopted a new life ! And when you 



& 



SHORTEST ROAD TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 133 

awake in the morning, it will seem to you as though 
everybody's existence had commenced anew, and that 
there is no dreary past in your own history ! All this 
goes on the fact that you have ordered down your vehe- 
ment passions, and said to your unclean spirits and 
demons : " Away to the dark and dreary past — away ! I 
turn my back forever upon you ! You shall not again 
come before me ! If you do, you shall be at once consigned 
to an everlasting death !" 

These sayings are not fictions. I know that a true 
Harmonial Philosopher — a real, spiritual, living soul — 
can rise up and live a higher life in the midst of his 
circumstances. Neither his bodily diseases, nor his 
habitual passions, nor his great wealth, nor his extreme 
poverty, nor his ignorance, can utterly deprive him of 
heaven and angels. Whatever his situation, he may 
become a candidate for an eternal voyage; for his 
spiritual ship is freighted with every means of happi- 
ness and progression. 



THE REIGN OF ANTI-CHRIST- 



" Be thou like the old apostles, 

Be thou like heroic Paul : 
If a free thought seeks expression, 

Speak it boldly ! speak it all ! 
Face thine enemies — accusers, 

Scorn the prison, rack, or rod ! 
And if thou hast truth to utter, 

Speak ! and leave the rest to God." 

I shall not be able to say more than half that I feel 
ought to be said on this subject to the hundreds and 
thousands who live and think within sectarian walls ; 
but, according to the law of progress, the time will 
arrive when all ears will hear and all hearts under- 
stand the gospel of God in contradistinction to the 
prevalent gospel of Diabolism. 

Past peoples followed the course of human preju- 
dice concerning the faults, evils, and iniquities of their 
neighbors. Nothing was easier to understand than the 
supposed or real imperfections of souls outside of them- 
selves. And yet se^f-knowledge was esteemed to be 
the highest attainment of wisdom. Every true Philo- 
sopher, Spiritualist, or Progressive Bibliarian — every 
person, in short, who taught or teaches from a high 
point of spirit-culture, advocates and urges that true 
seZf-knowledge is the highest and most valuable educa- 
tion. But those conceited minds who are not truly 



THE REIGN OF ANTI-CHRIST. 135 

self-informed, who do not yet begin to Ignow themselves, 
who still need the hints and revealments of phrenolo- 
gists and psychometrists, who most ardently wish to 
have themselves analyzed — are the very minds who 
judge, with great assurance of perception, the charac- 
ter and conduct of their nearest neighbors; they 
assume to fully know their neighbors' motives and the 
most secret thoughts that led to individual manifesta- 
tions, as much in social life as in the public arena. 

Nothing is more illustrative of the truth of these 
remarks than the history of theology. When Buddhism 
appeared, the Brahmins, who were the aristocratic reli- 
gionists of ancient Asia, rose up and said, "That is 
Anti-Brahma, and should be overthrown." When 
Buddhism became perfectly established, and when its 
doctrines were sufficiently respectable to exert a wide 
influence in China and in many portions of the East, 
then Brahminism, suspending its opposition, cordially 
shook hands with it ; then the Old and the New ex- 
changed compliments, and sent letters of fellowship 
to each other ; but, notwithstanding all this, one never 
got invited to the other's temple or pagoda. They 
became somewhat tolerant and respectful, but never 
reconciled to each other. And they are perfect illus- 
trations of the Mosaic and the Christian dispensations. 

When the Mosaic dispensation became very respecta- 
ble, and great synagogues and costly temples and vast 
cities were consecrated to it — to the laws of Moses, 
which were, in a religious point of view, as complete 
and inexorable as were the laws of the Medes and Per- 
sians — then a pious Eastern lady had the unparalleled 
audacity to believe and to declare that her first babe 



136 MORNING LECTURES. 

was conceived and " sent of God." And then the star, 
according to the story, went over and stood — where? 
Not over a palace, but over a stable! Wise men went 
thither to learn, and some of them to worship. Thus 
began a new chapter in theological history. 

But when the babe grew to a young man, and be- 
came sufficiently c < meddlesome" to interfere with the 
Rabbinical wisdom and religious authorities of the 
times, then the learned doctors and profound Israelites, 
concentrating the opposition of both sects — of the Phari- 
sees on the one side and the Sadducees on the other — 
made common cause and set themselves as one man 
against the young Reformer. And when the meddle- 
some carpenter attained his thirtieth year, and as soon 
as he bravely began his three years' work for the com- 
mon humanity, then they rose up as one party and said : 
" He hath a devil !" " This is Anti-Christ !" " Cru- 
cify him, crucify him V 9 And when he was outwardly 
successful — for it is human nature to.admire and al- 
most worship " Success" — when the young Spiritual 
Reformer was successful, then very gladly large mul- 
titudes " followed him." They gathered in vast con- 
gregations to hear the amber words of wisdom as they 
dropped from his inspired lips, and in their enthusiasm 
the disciples cried, " Hosanna V 9 (" three cheers" — that 
was what they meant.) "He is successful in his signs 
and wonders ; he is our man." But when what the 
sightless world terms " defeat" overtook him ; when his 
sweetest truths evoked a public hissing ; when his asso- 
ciates were openly scorned ; when the Sermon on the 
Mount was derided on all sides by the learned in the 
temples ; and when there was a great startling convul- 



THE REIGN OF ANTI-CHRIST. 137 

sion of the world's political relations, which struck 
terror to the highest officers in Judea — then human 
nature, undeveloped and full of pride, declared itself, 
and many of the enthusiastic persons who followed 
him — some of them the most conspicuous among his 
friends — betrayed and forsook him, and sided with the 
opposition and largest party, and cried : " Crucify 
him V' 3 " He is Anti-Moses !" " He is a pretender to 
the throne of Judea V 9 " He assumes to be what he is 
not!" "He is an impostor!" And then a Jewish 
magnate held his court of inquiry. The young Spiritual 
Reformer was there arraigned and accused. His crime 
was said to be sedition and conspiracy against the Ro- 
man government. He had aroused the prejudices of 
the Israelites. They heard him not in self-defense. 
That was a packed jury ! And I believe that every 
juryman there had in his ear a private whisper, not 
from the angels of heaven, but from those prejudiced 
Israelites who pf owled round about, saying, : " He is 
not fit to live!" "Crucify him!' 5 "Let us defend, 
obey, and save good old Moses, and let us cling firmly 
to the Laws and the Prophets !" 

But why dwell upon this event ? You all know the 
history. It is a clear, simple narrative, and is in 
almost every one's external memory. Jesus was Anti- 
Moses. That crime was sufficient. Consequently, down 
he went perforce into the earth beneath. But at that 
moment he was greater, vaster, more almighty than all 
the world above ground ! When the hour arrived for 
the eternal truth to manifest itself, the birth of it only 
astounded those who saw with their physical eyes. But 
the civilized world, to-day, looks upon that august 



138 MORNING LECTURES. 

apotheosis — the going up of a Spiritual Reformer to 
live among the Gods — as one of the grandest victories 
over materialism, and as one of the sublimest spectacles 
that was ever painted on the canvas of the past ; and 
nearly all the accredited eloquence of this age is thrown 
about it; all the resources of rhetoric; all the devices 
of grammar ; all the symbolic reasonings and pictorial 
conceptions of Christian scholars. Music, fashion, 
wealth, and all the civil and political institutions of 
this country, more or less, harmonize with the convic- 
tion that when Jesus died the world lost its central 
figure in the tragedy of salvation. 

Now what is this that is called " Christianity" ? 
What is the history of Christendom ? I tell you, in 
plain truth, that its history, from first to last, is an ex- 
act reproduction of its tragical origin. As soon as it 
attained to adequate power, it became the persecutor of 
every Scientific and Spiritual Reformer. In its turn, it 
has echoed the word " Anti-Christ" all the way down 
human history. The record is before you. Henry 
VIII declared, in the midst of his regal selfishness and 
personal lustfulness, that he would not be bridled in 
his seekings after various companions in marriage. The 
prelates and bishops at Rome assembled and sat in 
judgment against him. They shouted " Anti-Christ," 
and denounced him, declaring that his relation to 
Catharine of Arragon was holy and valid, and that any 
other conjugal relation would be false as hell and 
opposed to the gospel of Jesus. You know the sequel 
of the story. He immediately broke with the whole 
Roman Catholic world, and from that day to this the 
Catholics have been denounced by Protestants as 



THE REIGN OF ANTI-CHRIST. 139 

" Anti-Christ ;" and as " one good turn deserves an- 
other, 55 the Protestants are denounced as " Anti-Christ" 
by Roman Catholics the wide world over. 

Martin Luther and. his companion, Melancthon, who 
stood on the threshold of that vast religious reform 
which brought the blessings of freedom of conscience 
and free speech, were deemed "Anti-Christ' 5 by the whole 
religious world then called Christendom. These were 
early and bitterly denounced as disbelievers in the 
Bible. And then, as soon as Protestantism became per- 
fectly established, (I will not go into details of its 
history, which are familiar to all,) it began the anti- 
Christian work of persecuting and crucifying every 
Reformer that has arisen. And in nearly every instance 
the new man or the new movement was stigmatized as 
"Anti-Christ 55 and opposed as " Anti-Christian. 55 

Now the real anti-Christian — whether man or move- 
ment — can be easily known and recognized. The 
genuine Christian is one who goes about doing good, or 
does good whilst staying at home — not evil anywhere. 
A theologian — a mere theorist in religion — is a very 
different person. " Christ signifies Savior 55 — the oppo- 
site of evil and destruction. Anything, therefore, which 
saves, or partakes of and imparts the saving principle, 
illustrates the true Christ. " Such a person, or such a 
principle, is truly " Christian/ 5 On the contrary, any- 
thing which militates powerfully and intensely against 
the advancement of a Truth, which sets itself against 
the growth of a Science, or opposes the light of Reason 
and Intuition, is necessarily an antagonist of the good 
principle, " anti-Christian, 5 ' and practically an ene- 
my of mankind. The Word of God is composed 



140 MORNING LECTURES. 

of Love, Justice, Truth, Wisdom, and Liberty. 
Principles, wherever you find them, whether in reli- 
gion or out of it, are infallible and imperishable words 
of God. A Christian is one who wishes to live in rela- 
tion to his fellows as he would have others live with 
reference to him. It is the adoption of the principle of 
perfect justice and reciprocation — of doing to others as 
you would have others do to you — having unbounded 
sympathy, saving charity, practical benevolence, 
crowned by a warm love of truth, and a reverence for 
what is truly Supreme. Therefore to cherish q, wor- 
shipful love of Father God and Mother Nature is to be 
Christian and religious also, in the largest spiritual 
sense. 

The opposite is easily comprehended. To be the 
opposite of all this is to be " anti- Christian. 55 To live 
unjustly and combatively, so as to produce discord and 
enmities among your fellow-men ; to give misinterpre- 
tations to the plainest truths that you may hear; to act 
falsely, with duplicity and hypocrisy ; to deal with man- 
kind maliciously and selfishly ; to hold passions, to 
harbor prejudices, to foster intemperate appetites ; in 
short, to do, or feel, or think, whatsoever breeds dis- 
cord and destruction in human family or society, is to 
be necessarily and diametrically opposite to the 
redeeming principles, and is, strictly speaking, " anti- 
Christ." 

But sectarianism does not judge by this standard. 
Each Church holds that everything is anti-Christian 
which does not fully accept its adopted creed. Thus 
the Methodists are Anti-Christ to the Presbyterians. 
Calvinists could not endure John Wesley 5 s anti- 



THE REIGN OF ANTI-CHRIST. 141 

Christianism ; not that Methodists were not just as 
good pietists and citizens as the Presbyterians, but be- 
cause Wesley's followers did not receive the gospel 
which Calvin taught as biblical and infallibly true. In 
like manner when Unitarianism appeared, it was every- 
where denounced as "Anti-Christ." The same 
denunciatory spirit is written in the history of the Dis- 
senters in England and Scotland. They fled to the 
mountain-glens and sought safety among the distant 
valleys. The Waldenses and the Huguenots — how 
cruelly they were persecuted in consequence of not 
adopting the religious creed which passed current as 
God's Word among those in power at the time ! Not 
because the Huguenots were not just as good as others ; 
not because the Waldenses were not upright and 
honorable persons, industrious and frugal, exemplary 
in their families ; but simply because they did not 
believe in the various cardinal principles which were 
authoritatively called t; God's Word" in the creed of 
the dominant Church. 

The same persecuting spirit appeared and was 
applied to the early leaders and teachers of the Uni-^ 
versalist denomination. They were all " Anti-Christs." 
Universalism was so terribly Anti-Christian because it 
was not in harmony with the doctrines of eternal suffer- 
ings for a few years of sin. John Murray did not take 
a large amount of stock in a personal Devil nor in a 
literal hell ! and so he was opposed to and denounced 
by the Churches that flourished in grandeur around 
him. And therefore these Churches said, with one 
voice : " He is Anti-Christian — crucify him ! crucify 
him!' 5 You know the history of George Fox and of 



142 MORNING LECTURES. 

Elias Hicks ; it is all the same story, a repetition of 
the same outrageous conduct among the evangelical 
sects. 

Now look at the evil spirit of sectarianism in con- 
nection with the world of Science. The Churches say: 
" Any Science that conflicts with the doctrines of our 
creeds, is no science, and it must not be taught in our 
schools/' That was the early trouble of the so-called 
Christian world. It was seen that the doctrines held 
by scientific men, with reference to Nature, were calcu- 
lated to destroy utterly the creeds of the Churches not 
only, but threatened to destroy as well the foundations 
of Christianity. Science and common sense— both pow- 
erful agents from God— early began to destroy the 
fiction-basis of miracles, and to reduce all mental and 
physical transactions to the systematic operations of 
immutable law. The Churches said that this scientific 
and rationalistic opposition to their creed was " Anti- 
Christian/ 5 not because these scientific men and ration- 
alists were bad men ; not because their families were 
less respectable than the families of believers in the 
Bible ; but because they taught the impossibility of 
the Trinity ; because they found nowhere in the bound- 
less geography of God's universe a place for the eternal 
explosion of soul-burning sulphur; and, more especially, 
because Science and Reason said this world was not the 
center of the physical Universe, but a very insignificant 
part of the material system — on account of all this, the 
Churches rose up and said : " Anti-Christ ! — down with 
such Science ! Crucify its first apostle and advocates V' 
You know that the first scientific astronomers were 
obliged to seal their lips, to carry the beautiful truth 



THE REIGN OF ANTI-CHRIST. 143 

upon the heart, and to worship the divine secret in the 
silence of a prison. When Science said, " God is more 
illustrated, and magnified, and vindicated, in these dis- 
tant planets than on this small globe/' and when it said 
that " this globe revolves around the sun, and not the 
sun around it" — then the sects cried out in great bit- 
terness: "This is surely Anti-Christ!" and they rose 
in monumental" resistance to the development and diffu- 
sion of such information. They opposed Science because 
it was opposed to the accepted " Word of God," as 
written out in their sectarian creeds. 

Universalists, Unitarians, the Quakers, the No- 
thingarians — the evangelical and respectable sects, all 
the way down to the bottomless pit of old Hebrew 
mythology — have arisen, as one man and one power, and 
said : " Spiritualism is ' Anti-Christ/ " The respectable 
sects say : " There is no question or doubt about it ; 
at last we have found out the evil one who is among us. 
He comes in s the garments of light' — which the Devil 
sometimes either borrows or steals — and calls himself 
Spiritualism" Therefore the leaders and teachers of 
this new truth must be opposed and vanquished. Not 
that Spiritualists in the community are any worse per- 
sons than their Christian neighbors ; not that they act 
offensively ; not that they keep their children from the 
public schools, or fail to pay their taxes, or decline to 
make Presidents or unmake them ; nor that they fail to 
fulfill their responsible relations as citizens, as husbands, 
fathers, brothers, or sisters, wives, and mothers — no, 
the opposition comes from the fact that modern Spiritu- 
alism is to popular theology what Christianity was to 
the Spiritualism of the Egyptio-Israelites. The modern 



144 MORNING LECTURES. 

movement began about fifteen years ago. It has 
gathered strength and momentum every hour since. 
Impelled by its original moving-power of principles, 
it rapidly rolls past the Churches of Christendom, 
although they shout " Anti-Christ !" No imaginable 
opposition could now arrest its progress. In addition 
to its inherent motive force of principles, it adds the 
strength of " facts," which have been accumulating in 
all past Spiritual history. But there is a vaster and 
more influential attraction — viz., the discovery that the 
Future is larger, grander, and more permanent than the 
present ; and that when we go forward, it is towards 
the light out of darkness, toward purity out of imper- 
fection, toward harmony out of discord. This is the 
powerful attraction that draws onward the Spiritual 
movement. Its inherent momentum, and the vitality of 
its central principles, lift it far beyond all the growling, 
barking institutions that pride themselves on not being 
Anti-Christ. I will now ask your attention to eight 
points of Sectarianism — each being a form of "Anti- 
christ." 

1. What does sectarianism do ? It breaks up hu- 
man sympathies, divides families, breeds animosities, 
leads to misrepresentations, brings confusion, and ends 
in war. It goes out into politics, separates the coun- 
try, divides limb from limb. This is what it does in 
the civil, social, and political departments of the world. 
Has Spiritualism brought sectarianism into the world ? 
What is its spirit ? Love of mankind — brotherly love 
and sisterly love — comprehending the Father and 
Mother principles. That is Christian, and it is also 
Spiritual. It is the opposite of sectarianism. Sects 



THE REIGN OF ANTI-CHRIST. 145 

have arisen out of theology and priestcraft. Each 
decides the question for the other. But Spiritualism 
stands to-day as the boundless Protestant, as the Luther 
of Luthers in the midst of this jargon, saying, " Away 
with creeds and party walls ! Break down the parti- 
tions, and build up liberty, sympathy, and unity, among 
these discordant, chaotic, and estranged elements." 
And this is what is called " Anti-Christ !" We say 
that evils, even if they be stubborn as goats, may be- 
come white and gentle sheep one of these days. Some 
believe that a portion of the human race will be con- 
signed to the great goat-gridiron, to be fried forever. 
Goat-steak for breakfast — broiled goats for dinner — 
stewed goats for supper. But to teach that all goats 
are on the way to the sheep-fold ; that all may become 
brothers and sisters; that all are on the way toward 
the infinite, approaching from a countless variety of 
paths which lead toward one Positive Mind, and toward 
one encircling sphere of immortal glory and happiness, 
preparatory to a larger and a grander experience in 
individual progress — because Spiritualism asserts and 
advocates these principles and ultimates, it is denounced 
as " Anti-Christ." 

Orthodox ministers could do nothing without " a 
personal devil" or something equivalent to him — could 
do nothing for the salvation of souls without these cells 
in the lower portions of God's universe, where lost souls 
are burning and seething with unutterable suffering. 
Anything opposed to those beautiful cardinal principles 
is Anti-Christ ! ! ! Spiritualism, Quakerism, Unitari- 
anism, Universalism, Atheism, and Deism, are oppo- 
1 



146 MORNING LECTURES. 

nents of such teachings in old <iheology. Therefore 
they are denounced. 

II. Next we will, consider Vindictive Punishments. 
Did Spiritualism bring into the world such punishments ? 
The teaching of the pulpit is, that God punishes arbi- 
trarily ; not as the natural result of violated principles. 
The principles themselves (we say) contain the whips of 
justice by which both the criminal and the victim are 
brought to repentance and compensation. 

The Churches teach that "man is to be arbitrarily 
punished, and that God may justly punish to all eter- 
nity for a few years, a few hours, a few days of sin. 
But reason rebels ; for the relation of punishment to 
the crimes committed, is out of all human sense of pro- 
portion. Orthodoxy regards it all as God's great 
wisdom, and it teaches that men ought to keep still and 
not criticise. But human nature insists that punish- 
ment and crime should sustain some relation to each 
other ; that if a man sins a certain number of weeks or 
years,, he should experience punishments which extend 
over something like a corresponding period of time ; or 
that his punishment, if shortened in duration, should be 
at least equivalent in quantity and quality to the nature 
and extent of his crimes. 

Perhaps the best thing that can be said of Spiritual 
reform is, that it brings in this Gospel — that punish- 
ment and crime are always in harmony with each other ; 
that one is balanced by the other, and that there is no 
vicarious atonement, and no virtue in what is called 
death-bed repentance. Theology says, " Our faith will 
sweep you all clean, you miserable sinners ; it will get 
you into the kingdom all beautiful at last, even though 



THE REIGN OF ANTI-CHRIST. 147 

you may have destroyed the lives of hundreds of your 
fellow-beings !" Spiritualism holds a very different 
doctrine with regard to the future of all such persons. 
Although there is no despair, there are opportunities 
and privileges, labors and schools, influences of exam- 
ple, and the magnetic attraction of love, all tending 
slowly, winningly, lovingly, to develop better faculties 
in such sinners, and to conquer their imperfect habits 
and badly developed powers. That is what Spiritual- 
ism teaches. Is it Anti-Christian ? 

III. In the world there is the doctrine that God 
sends War as an arbitrary punishment. Spiritualism 
teaches that War comes- as a concomitant of human mis- 
direction, of miseducation, and undevelopment. War 
is in harmony with man's lower mental and moral con- 
ditions. When he unfolds a more beautiful character, 
then Society will be sweeter, then nations will be har- 
monized, and then bloody Wars will cease! The 
Church says " War comes out of heaven ; God sends it 
as a punishment." Spiritualism teaches, on the other 
hand, that War comes out of man's lowest estates, 
and that it is natural to those inferior conditions. But 
this is what the churches call " Anti-Christian Philo- 
sophy." 

IV. Next look at the universal passion for Selfish 
Aggrandizement. Spiritualism comes as the opponent 
of such selfishness. But the churches do not oppose it. 
Did you ever hear a revival-minister stand in the pul- 
pit and teach the doctrines of social reforms, by which 
alone mankind can be developed out of their selfish- 
ness ? Nothing of this at a revival. But the people 
are told that Christ died for sinners, not to cure you 



148 * MORNING LECTURES. 

of your selfishness, but to make it possible that, although 
you are as red as fire with iniquities, you can be made 
as white as snow — not saved from the commission of 
sin, but from its " consequences." Spiritualism teaches 
that the doctrine of vicarious atonement for the conse- 
quences of sin comes out of undevelopment, out of a lack 
of justice in man, out of a low, selfish condition of men- 
tality. When men learn the principles of community ; 
when they discover that large cities may become corpo- 
rate bodies, as really and practically as these Insurance 
and Banking corporations ; and that the whole city may 
become a monopoly in human happiness, instead of a 
mill for social, commercial, and mercantile conflicts, 
then will come among men the delights and beauties 
and equilibriums of the kingdom of heaven. Spiritual- 
ism teaches the absence of selfishness and inculcates 
doctrines of justice and truth to cause men to unite their 
interests. It will be easier to live for each other's 
interests than to live against each other's interests. 

V. Next, I think it will be admitted that the doc- 
trine that Woman should occupy a position equal with 
man is not " Anti-Christ," though the Church affects to 
look upon it as such. The Church says : " The woman 
should not teach, or if she does, she should do it in pri- 
vate, and with her head covered/' Paul, a great 
authority in the Churches, held that woman had a place 
more brilliant, more attractive, more grand, away from 
the public arena. There are many intelligent persons 
who agree with Paul; but it will come to be seen one 
of these days that Paul and all who think with him are 
Anti-Christians. And those who hold to the doctrine 
that woman is spiritually, socially, intellectually, and 



i 



THE REIGN OF ANTI-CHRIST. 149 

physically man's equal, but in a different way — that 
woman will have a career parallel with man's through 
all the eternal spheres — such doctrines one of these 
days will be called good orthodox Christian truth. 
Now, however, it is '• Anti-Christian " and is denounced 
as the Woman's Rights movement. Not a church in 
New York City is open for a speaker upon this ques- 
tion. Dodworth's Hall, or Peter Cooper's Institute, or 
some lesser place, must be hired, to advocate the doc- 
trine that the mother is equal to the father, the sister 
to the brother, and that in the future of society and of 
government they are to stand side by side as compeers 
and mutual supporters. 

VI. Next, take the question of Slavery. Slavery 
must be several years older than Spiritualism. It 
started some time previous to the development of the 
heathen mythologies. You find it before Calvin taught, 
before Luther declared himself independent, or before 
Henry the Eighth broke with the Romish Church. You 
can trace it in all the lower, brutish, and selfish condi- 
tions of human society. Spiritualism declares itself the 
fixed and unalterable opponent of all human chattelism, 
servitude, tyranny, and despotism. It emancipates the 
individual, and proclaims freedom alike to man and 
woman, Jew and Christian, child and adult, black and 
white. Such is the philosophy of this new dispensa- 
tion, which the Church calls " Anti-Christian." I 
know it is anti-creed and anti-church, but it is not 
Anti-Christian. 

VII. Again, Spiritualism teaches that all Excesses 
are vicious"; that persons who indulge in anything ex- 
cessively are guilty of vice, which is certain to be pun- 



150 MORNING LECTURES. 

ished ; and that no vicarious atonement can save them 
from such legitimate suffering. But the Churches hold 
up the doctrine that man can be cleansed by a miracle, 
and so pass off into the other world pure as a child 
born from the bosom of God. Spiritualism teaches that 
intemperance is as much applicable to eating as to alco- 
hol, as much to activity as to idleness, as much to 
spiritual as to any other human manifestation. Intem- 
perance in any of these departments is vice, is wrong ; 
and balance, equilibrium, harmony in all things, is 
right. 

VIII. Lastly, look at the doctrine in the religious 
world that men are spiritually fallen in animalism, and 
that if they live hereafter it will be by some miracu- 
lous arrangement. Ask the Church people what they 
think of the future ; they will give you the most vague 
and unsatisfactory answer. The Future, in their creeds, 
is an incomprehensible Supernaturalism. They seem to 
think that the other world is as different from this as 
truth is from error. 

Spiritualism, on the other hand, proves the other 
world to be as much a part of this existence as the hu- 
man brain is a part of the spinal marrow. The spinal- 
marrow has been gathered up, and folded over, and in 
and out, and over again, and convoluted into the mental 
organism. The spines of all the lower world — working 
up through fishes, reptiles, birds, quadrupeds, and 
bimanals into the human, growing finer and finer until 
they become human cerebrum, or front brain — flowering 
out from the animal world through the cerebellum, or 
back brain, and hanging itself over on the front, the 
receptacle of the immortal mind ! Thus we trace the 






THE REIGN OF ANTI-CHPJST. 151 

first particles of this human brain back through the 
history of all the organic kingdoms of the world 
below. 

The Churches do not seek such knowledge, and they 
openly repudiate it as " Anti-Christian." But we look 
upon Science and Philosophy as the hand-maids of this 
new Religion. Spiritualism opens the human brain as 
the sun opens the petals of the flower, when it trembles 
and bursts into fragrance and beauty : and as Minerva 
sprung from the brain of Jupiter, so the human spirit 
comes forth and rises into that existence which is a con- 
tinuation of this. When these soldiers, facing and 
fighting the enemies of Freedom, are struck down, they 
are not down except to the external physical eyes, but 
are in reality immediately shot up and out into a larger, 
sublimer existence. With this knowledge they can 
march on without trembling. They need not be one 
moment in bondage to the fear of death ; there is no 
grave for the immortal spirit, only a natural and imme- 
diate resurrection. 

But all this the Church calls "Anti-Christian." 
Christian clergymen have ventured to call it the rhap- 
sody of a fanatical brain ! Spiritualism brings a great 
knowledge of the future. The old materialistic school 
of Infidelity has no chance with Spiritualism. Men who 
had no knowledge of the future and no faith in man, 
have now a scientific assurance and a beautiful hope. 
These truths come as an illuminating religion, expand- 
ing the human heart, refreshing the senses, and opening 
the reasoning powers, enabling the mind to see that 
there is no break in the laws of individual progress. 
If such a doctrine is " Anti-Christian/' then human intui- 



152 MORNING LECTURES. 

tion has no power by which it can distinguish the truth 
from error. Anti-Christianism is teaching that which 
is opposed to the future and to God, to purity and to 
progress. Reformers are obliged to marshal their forces 
against the Anti-Christianity of Christendom. Any- 
thing which militates against the doctrine of Spiritual 
freedom and progress, and the development and expan- 
sion of fraternal love, is Anti- Christ, and it is undenia- 
ble that the Churches are the worst opponents of 
Freedom and Progress. Hence you perceive that the 
worst Anti-Christianism is the Churchianity op 
Christendom. 

In conclusion, I have but to remind you that the era 
of Spiritual harmony is approaching ; it is coming to be 
part of the common inheritance. Not by any miracle, 
not by any supernatural arrangement, not by the death 
of Christ or any other reformer ; but the New Age is 
coming by the principles of an eternal Divinity, which 
are imperishably implanted in human nature. When 
the new truth comes, it is natural for persecution to 
come also. The opposition is necessary to bring out a 
grander and more perfect development ; so that, while 
we deplore and denounce this sectarian opposition, we 
see that it is natural and proper in the course of human 
progress. 

I would not have any man or woman believe these 
principles any sooner than Nature and Reason will aid 
them to believe. Be just and natural in your spiritual 
growth; then you will be as firm as the everlasting 
hills. God is the central magnet of the universe ; the 
spiritual world is the continuation of the natural world ; 
and man's spirit comes out of his brain at death just as 



THE REIGN OF ANTI-CHRIST. 153 

the flower comes oat of the bud in the garden ; it is all 
beautifully natural, and there is no miracle ; and, there- 
fore, when you ascend to the higher life, it will not 
even surprise you ; but will seem like a welcoming 
stream of water to the thirsty, and like a feast of 
wholesome food to the hungry. 

This spiritual truth gives help to all and extracts 
help from all. Instead of finding an antagonist in 
popular science or philosophy, or an enemy in any of 
the reforms, Spiritualism finds in each and all of them 
true friends, dear relatives, and old acquaintances. 
Therefore, when a man is a Spiritualist, he will very 
likely be something else beside — a Woman's Eights 
man, an Anti-Slavery man, a Temperance man ; and he 
believes in the development of higher governmental or- 
ganizations. He is loyal to the government while it 
must exist, but is ever working and longing for some- 
thing better. He is in favor of punishment, if it be 
reformatory and not vindictive. He is therefore in 
favor of Justice, and is the opponent of all forms and 
degrees of oppression. A Spiritualist is very likely to 
be cosmopolitan. He will have a tender and saving 
regard for his fallen brother everywhere, and feels soli- 
citude for the man who occupies a place higher than 
himself. He extends the fraternal grasp to those who 
are above and those who stand beneath. The modern 
Spiritualist stands erect between these positions — be- 
tween social and religious extremes — and becomes a 
central influence, a medium for the expression of the 
principles of progress, and a friend to all who would 
grow in wisdom and harmony. 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 



" The weapons which your hands have found 
Are those which Heaven itself has wrought : 
Light, Truth, and Love ; — your battle-ground 
♦ The free, broad field of Thought." 

A startling proposition was offered and then urged 
some time since, to this effect : That, although all human 
minds are constituted upon and with the same funda- 
mental principles, yet each differs from the other both 
in quantity of mentality and also in the quality of the 
ingredients. By quality and by quantity men are less 
or more in contact with the divine principles that regu- 
late the spiritual universe. 

It can be shown that an " adjective" is all-important. 
People pay for an adjective when it is properly applied 
to fruit, to grains, or to goods of any kind in the physi- 
cal world. For example: If a peach, without an 
adjective, is worth one penny, then a good peach is 
worth three cents, a better peach is worth four, and the 
best peach is worth six cents. The value is enhanced by 
the adjective, the superlative degrees always command- 
ing the highest price. 

This reasoning is applicable to man's spiritual na- 
ture. As fruit is improved by cultivation, so the 
development of spiritual quality and excellence is de- 
pendent upon true mental education. All persons do 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 155 

not inherit the same amount of spiritual property; 
some minds are born comparatively millionaires in their 
endowments and attributes, and some correspond to 
musical instruments in the arrangements of their attri- 
butes ; while others are born in the lowest physiologi- 
cal dell, and are compelled to enter society through the 
lowest doors, and must plod their way through the 
coarsest circumstances. 

In meeting certain persons, do you not perceive that 
there is either an excess or else a deficiency in their 
mentalities ? Other natures are large and opulent from 
no 'definable or apparent reason. Their personal 
presence seems to fill the whole' space. They may not 
utter a word ; and yet their very silence — which is the 
twin of mystery and the chief indication of power — 
pours itself with eloquence into your consciousness. Do 
you not sometimes feel the immensity of particular per- 
sons who are, through their whole life, habitually silent 
and thoughtful ? 

Other persons, however demonstrative and garrul- 
ous, impress you as being empty and void of soul. They 
may utter, and write, and do things that are precious 
and agreeable to your convictions — may hold to ideas 
that are sympathetic with your long-cherished senti- 
ments — may tell political or religious truths to the 
people that you have long been waiting to hear utter- 
ed — and yet these same persons will impress you with 
a hollowness of character, with a sense of sounding 
brass and tinkling cymbals, which repels you from 
them, and all this without any well-defined reasons or 
cause that you can understand or express. 

Others, again, are M passable." They impress you 



156 MORNING LECTURES. 

indifferently, or not at all. Such seem to be about 
fairly equipped for the voyage of life. They neither 
impress nor depress the social sphere about them. They 
are comfortable passengers, sleeping in the middle cars, 
between the two extremes. 

My work this morning is to trace out the causes 
that lead to so many battles between the Spirit and its 
Circumstances, and, if possible, to give suggestions by 
which those conflicts may be avoided or shortened, and 
the conquest of the individual all the more perfect and 
permanent. 

When a great and important battle is contemplated, 
it is one part of good generalship to ascertain all the 
directions whence your enemies can approach ; and not 
only so, but to examine and estimate their resources, 
study their tactics, find out their nationality and tem- 
peraments, learn what they design to do, ferret out 
their motives, and pierce them to the heart by the most 
searching investigations. Then take an inventory and 
make an honest estimate of your own powers and re- 
sources — neither under-estimate nor over-estimate 
them — be wholly calm and steady, without heat or 
trepidation, but with great self-preservation and con- 
scientiousness, having perfect reliance upon the virtue 
and integrity of your motives and the divinity of the 
ends to be accomplished. Find out, first of all, what 
you have to battle with and what weapons you will be 
called to use. This forethought and preparation will 
give you a true estimate of your own powers and re- 
sources, and you will know the various obstacles with 
which you will be forced to contend. 

In investigating the constitution, and resources, and 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 1 57 

responsibilities of the human mind, I find that iew per- 
sons think — fe\v r persons give themselves time enough to 
stop to think — what it is to live in this world. Few 
realize that life to a human being is infinitely more im- 
portant and more significant than is life to an animal- 
Take the most perfectly trained and learned animals 
of the acre, and you will find that their progeny return 
to the first animals of like species in all their charac- 
teristics. Their progeny never improve in any habit ; 
they never acquire new thoughts or instincts ; never 
adopt new methods of living in this world. They are 
entirely harmonious — soul with sense, inward life with 
external parts. They have no war with their circum- 
stances. They are embodiments of but few principles. 
Motion, life, and sensation — these constitute the whole 
of an animal. The soul fills the physical parts to over- 
flowing, and that completes an animal's existence and 
happiness. Its senses are balanced and in perfect har- 
mony with that combination of powers and instincts. 
There is therefore no controversy in the single-con- 
sciousness of an animal. Its mind hesitates only when 
two things, like two bundles of hay of unequal size, 
happen to be presented to it ; then there is a momen- 
tary exercise of inclination in reference to a purely 
selfish gratification. The animal mind is swayed and 
governed invariably, not by a moral conviction, but by 
that simple sense of attraction which moves its feelings 
the strongest. The same is true of all human beings 
who are yet on the animal plane. Yes, there are plenty 
of human beings who walk through society in just that 
sensuous way. You will see, on analysis, that all such, 
while so permitting themselves to live, are nothing but 



158 MORNING LECTURES. 

quadrupeds in many of their sensations and tastes. 
They have not arisen to experience the noble feelings 
and large spiritual proportions of true human souls. 
Of course I know that, under some conditions and pe- 
culiar circumstances, all persons have such sensuous 
experiences — occasionally that all mankind so " live, 
and move, and have their being" — and thus all are, by 
the instincts of their constitutions, made conscious of 
one truth in our philosophy, that the animal world pre- 
ceded the human ; that our ancestral roots are deeply 
driven into the great physical under-world of organic 
life ; that we have inherited all of their instincts, incli- 
nations, and attributes; and, therefore, being legitimate 
offsprings from the Divine source, through these pre- 
human instrumentalities, mankind have inherited all 
anatomy, physiology, phrenology, and social propensi- 
ties of their remotest pre-human ancestors. 

Man is alone capable of knowing the difference be- 
tween himself and his circumstances. When a " circum- 
stance" is realized to be a circumstance, and when 
man's spirit feels itself to be a " centerstance," a sun- 
center, around which all circumstances and satellites 
are destined to revolve in orbital obedience, then is 
born within him the first assurance of his implanted 
prerogatives and kingship. This sense of supremacy 
may come in such memorable moments as when a man 
is driven to his highest mental point through excite- 
ment — sometimes through sublime indignation — at the 
climax of which comes the terrific fire and the thunder- 
shock from the soul's Sinai ; then descends a flash of 
celestial lightning from the spirit's heaven, and in an 
instant is born a strong divinity within the soul, which 



THE SPIKIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 159 

brings mountains to the valley and raises that which 
was low instantly to the level of its will. It is rarely 
that an appeal so sublime as this comes to human na- 
ture. But something of it is known in nearly all pri- 
vate lives. There comes to every one of you a moment 
of decision which will demand and compel the culmina- 
tion and climacteric determination of all your powers. 
The strength is declared from the inward fountain, and 
in that moment you realize, perhaps for the first time in 
your life, that there is an infinite difference between 
yourself and all that is moving about you— that you are 
spiritually a master, and that every " circumstance" 
which proposes to conquer and govern you is designed 
to be subservient. I say that such a conviction may be 
born in you for the first time in your life, in the midst 
of some ordinary transaction. When it comes, you 
should hail it as a prophet ; it is a John the Baptist. 
It is going before experience, announcing that a better, 
grander, sublimer era will dawn in your autobiogra- 
phy, when " circumstances' 5 will be comparatively your 
servants, . and you their immortal king within the 
temple ! 

The world is filled with substances with which 
spirit is constantly in contact. Why ? Because Spirit 
is substance itself. Spirit is something and substantial. 
It is connected, through the finest substances, with all 
the coarser substances in the visible world. It is all a 
system of perpetual centrifugation. Man's spirit is like 
a sun. It is revolving on its own axis, in its private 
orbit, and, as it revolves, throws off, by its centrifugal 
power, first, its most delicate substance — that is, the 
" body of the spirit ;* and then a yet coarser substance — 



160 MORNING LECTURES. 

that is, the " physical organization ;" and, lastly, still 
coarser substances, which are the "circumstances" round 
about it in the world. 

Eyery one is either a king in that central kingdom, 
or else a subject. It depends entirely on your constitu- 
tion, education, and state of mind, whether you be mas- 
ter or servant — whether you be " a thing" or " a 
power." Your position and your progress will be de- 
termined by your power, not by your force. There is, 
as you perceive, a great difference between force and 
power. Force is animal ; it is filled with impetuous 
vital electricity ; and after manifestation, it suffers from 
a corresponding degree of exhaustion. When it retires, 
you are fatigued. Power, on the contrary, never sub- 
sides. Power is linked with the eternal Spirit ; always 
feels its identity, and has no other ally. Do you sup- 
pose that God ever gets tired, as the old theology 
teaches ? that he needs to rest from Saturday night till 
Monday morning ? Such seasons of rest will do for 
force. Force requires it ; power never. Power is the 
deep ocean of omnipotent life. It flows through all 
physical and mechanical laws, and through all the or- 
ganic phenomena of the visible world. 

This perpetual evolution of the infinite power is 
silent. It is only when forces meet that there occurs an 
earthquake, a revolution, a war, or a battle. Where 
power is, there is only an overcoming, attended by no 
war, by no discord. The crooked is straightened with- 
out conflict. That which was rough is smoothed as by 
the omnipotent spirit of Deity. When filled with 
" force," you feel impatient and largely capable of ac- 
complishing rudimental ends. When filled with 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 161 

"power," you are overflowing with riches, feel no 
haste. Impulse subsides under true " power,*' and a 
quiet, earnest, indefatigable sensation sweeps all through 
the vine-clad groves of the spirit. This feeling of di- 
vine strength refreshes every faculty, gives you a new 
volume of confidence in the omnipotent God, and opens 
the truth that he liveth and reigneth in all things. 

Old Testament writers seemed to be filled with the 
spirit as well as the power of Jehovah. That is, they 
realized the difference between force and power. When 
they dropped out of it, they acted just like our modern 
warriors and politicians. They said and did coarse and 
crude things. But in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and 
in the Proverbs, you get words from the " superior 
condition." When they felt the Divine " power," when 
their impatient force was subdued and tranquilized, you 
know how beautifully and reverentially they wrote and 
sung of the Infinite Spirit. How sublimely they reposed 
on the unfathomable bosom of unknown Deity. " God," 
" Lord," and « Jehovah," were expressions they fre- 
quently used. What they called the " promises of God," 
we, in modern days, call the fulfillments of the un- 
changeable laws of Destiny. These promises or fulfill- 
ments of fixed laws are mapped out from the heart of 
the universe. We behold them in all the physical phe- 
nomena, and feel their operations infallibly in the life 
of spirit. 

Now, in arranging ourselves for the work of indi- 
vidual progress, we must ascertain the sources of our 
private enemies, and comprehend the magnitude and 
variety of our inevitable struggles. First, to begin 
inductively to examine the field of battle, we must com- 



162 MORNING LECTURES. 

mence with the outermost surfaces and go toward the 
center — go toward the internal man or spirit. You 
will observe, therefore, that physical circumstances first 
attract and demand your constant attention. They are 
the soil, water, air, heat — the physical elements and 
the social conditions of the outside world, in which you 
happen to be born and reared. You will always notice 
the difference between persons born on opposite sides 
of the Atlantic; also a difference between persons born 
on different portions of the American Continent, and 
still closer, the difference between individual members 
of the same family. Plants, in like manner, indicate, 
first, the soil from which they spring, and then the kind 
and amount of attention they receive. Moisture or dry- 
ness, the amount of sun-heat and amount of sun-light, 
will be clearly visible in the growth of the plants. 
Their history is within. If you had deep-seeing eyes, 
each one of earth's flowers, trees, and vines, would give 
you a careful account of the " circumstances" which su- 
perintended its development. Of course, in flower- 
gardens and orchards, there are intermediates — such as 
human eyes, and human skill, and human magnetism, 
and the gentle encouragements to growth. 

Trees, plants, vines, and flowers, are all affected 
more or less by the human beings who superintend their 
development. Thus their external history is like that 
of persons in the world. Cross to the opposite side* of 
the Pacific — go onward in the west until you arrive in 
the east again— and you will see that the mystery and 
philosophy of the Egyptian race — all they did in science 
and art — are characterized by and inseparable from the 
sands, plains, plants, valleys, and the almost mono ton- 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 163 

ous world in which they lived. People and country 
correspond ; the country first, next the people. On this 
principle, every tree, every plant, all vines, will form 
among themselves very small organic beings — animal- 
cule — if you will but give them opportunities and 
suitable conditions, so that the omnipresent organizing 
principle can operate through their parts. The bugs 
and worms on plum-trees always differ from those upon 
vines and plants in the garden. The apple-tree, the 
cherry, the pear, and each flower, bring out living crea- 
tures peculiarly adapted to their own productive sources 
and circumstances. 

It is even so with the physical and human world. 
The constitution, propensities, and characteristics of 
human beings, are in keeping with the constitution, pro- 
pensities, and characteristics of the soil. The amount 
and kind of sun-light and heat, the kind of lunar influ- 
ences, the amount of star-shine, the kind of water, the 
nature of the vegetation, and the character of the ani- 
mals — all go into the formation of a people or a race. 
Since the Egyptians left their soil, the soil itself seems 
almost to have died. Let a spectator examine it, and 
it would appear as though the valley of the Nile, with 
all its primeval abundance, had gone into slumber. 

Those great mountains and exceeding floral splen- 
dors, which are so wonderfully beautiful and grand and 
startling in the southern hemisphere of the globe, are 
far from where the Egyptians once lived. In southern 
regions you at once see that the physical " circum- 
stances' 5 are fully reported in the temperaments and 
tendencies of the people. Volcanic peoples in volcanic 
countries. Silent, stealthy impulses in human nature 



164 MORNING LECTURES. 

just where Nature is impulsive. Volcanoes take a 
long time to mature. When they get ready to break 
open the crust of the earth, they do so, and immediately 
swallow whole cities with one terrific elemental convul- 
sion. In such countries you find yourself among people 
who have in their characters corresponding impulses 
and designs. Give them time, and they, too, will 
silently incubate the largest revolution and produce the 
most ponderous monarchy ; they will remorselessly over- 
throw and utterly destroy any government or constitu- 
tion which shuts them from the indulgence of the largest 
interests and propensities. Thus the volcanic "circum- 
stances" of the world are repeated and reproduced in 
the temperaments, tendencies, and morals of the peo- 
ple ; and thus, too, are visible in folks the water and 
the soil, and the sun-light and heat, the lunar influences, 
the star-shine, and also the millions upon millions less 
noticeable circumstances of the age and clime. 

In this connection I adduce the reflections and facts 
of a mother concerning the influence of parental circum- 
stances on offspring. She says : " The precise character 
of the father, or the mother, is, probably, never repro- 
duced in a child ; the characters of children are a vari- 
ously proportioned compound of father and mother, 
modified, often in a great degree, by the circumstances 
and condition of the mother during her periods of ges- 
tation. The circumstances, or the condition, of both, 
differ in most of, probably in all, her gestations, some- 
times greatly. The influence of the father on the per- 
sonal and mental characters of his children, which is 
evident, makes it probable that that influence varies 
with every child ; according to the varying circum- 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 165 

stances, the varying surroundings, pursuits, cares, 
pleasures, occupations, and states of mental ..and bodily 
health of the father. But the varied influence of the 
father is not easy to be traced out : though we may 
make some probable guesses, that some of the most la- 
mentable variations in the children of the same family 
do proceed from variations in the father. But the vary- 
ing influence of the mother is evident to all observers; 
and the observer by questioning even very unphiloso- 
phical mothers can make them, by the facts they can 
recollect, readily admit that certain of their experiences 
during a period of gestation do coincide with the pe- 
culiarity of the child of that period. 

" The mother during one gestation may be sick — 
during another, she may be in health ; she may be 
lethargic and indolent during one, and active in mind 
during another ; be delighted in reciprocal conjugal 
love, respect, and confidence, at one period, and be de- 
sponding, under blighted hopes and blighted affection, 
at another; or be experiencing suspicion, jealousy, and 
hatred, under real or imagined injuries ; at one period 
her intellect is beneficially active under the influence of 
the highest feelings ; at another those feelings are dor- 
mant, causing the feelings that we call the worst 
(because when not under the control of the higher feel- 
ings they operate injuriously) to have undisputed sway ; 
and her intellect becomes devoted to melancholy, or to 
bitter and revengeful ideas ; at one period she may have 
pecuniary prosperity, at another, poverty, or the dread 
of it ; she is excited or depressed by the varying condi- 
tions of her family and her friends ; by varying ele- 
mentary conditions ; and by varying conditions in her 



166 



MORNING LECTURES. 



locality, or in her country. The variety of combina- 
tions from all these circumstances is without end ; and, 
as they are ever varying, it is very unlikely that the 
condition of a mother can be alike during any two pe- 
riods of gestation ; while it is certain that they cause it 
frequently to vary very greatly. 

"Can we expect the children formed under very dif- 
ferent conditions of the mother to be exactly alike ? 
We see that they are not alike in form, size, and health ; 
and as most of the mother's variable circumstances act 
diversely on her brain, and all her other variable cir- 
cumstances act indirectly upon it, it is only reasonable 
to suppose that though we cannot weigh or measure the 
different portions of the brains of children, their brains 
must differ more than their bodies do. And as even 
those physiologists who say that mind is a spiritual ex- 
istence added to matter, admit ttott the manifestations 
of mind, or mental character, will be according to the 
size, organization, and condition of the brain, modified 
by the condition of the body, both Materialists and 
Spiritualists agree that differences in brain and body 
caused differences in character at the time of birth. 

"That children are affected by transitory im- 
pressions on their mother's mind, is proved by the cases 
of physical markings, and deformities, familiar to every 
one as consequences of some short-lived desire, or 
fright, in mothers during gestation. I know a case of 
a child whose right hand is without fingers, as if the 
four fingers had been cut off; the mother had expe- 
rienced a momentary fear that her fingers would be cut 
off, as she placed her hand under the descending knife 
of the butcher, directing him where to cut the meat ; 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 167 

she received so slight a scratch that, as she says, she 
6 thought no more about it' until her child was born. 
If such transient emotion can cause such a variation, we 
must suppose that the more permanent mental conditions 
of the mother, often lasting through the whole period 
of gestation, must have a marked effect on the mental 
character of her child. Intelligent observers have 
collected a mass of facts upon the subject which amount 
to proof (as nearly as proof can be obtained on a sub- 
ject that must be inferential) that differences in the 
mother's circumstances-caused condition do produce 
mental differences in children. I will narrate a few of 
the facts known to myself: 

" A wife with good intellect, and still better moral 
feelings, during her last gestation, forbearingly,' from 
past love and respect, sustained a melancholy secret, a 
suppression of any expression of disgust and fear of a 
husband, who, by natural intellect and by education, 
once seemed her superior, but who, at this time, de- 
based by drunkenness, had brought her to poverty, and 
to dread of debt and want ; and who, in the frenzy of 
delirium tremens, was seeking to take the life of the 
wife he still respected and loved. The child of this 
gestation (now in the prime of manhood) possesses the 
intellect of his parents and the moral worth of his 
mother ; but, unlike his parents in their happier days, 
unlike their earlier child, but like his mother when she 
bore him, he has ever had a manner of sadness, and has 
ever been eminently secretive, so uncommunicative of 
nis ideas, feelings, and plans, that he can be estimated 
only by his actions. 

" Another wife, of different character, during her 



168 MORNING LECTURES. 

last gestation, was deserted by he-r husband, was left to 
poverty, and to experience the pang of jealousy in a 
high degree ; her feelings were not controlled by any 
remembrance of former respectful love, for her husband 
was not so constituted as to excite that for himself, or 
to feel it for her, and in the time of her great trial she 
had but little moral restraint on her feelings — she 
indulged in hatred and in bitter, vindictive feelings ; 
her child, now fifteen years of age, is, as he has always 
been, the personification of sourness of temper and of 
that ill-nature that likes to give pain by word and 
deed — and such is his character. His features wear 
the same expression that his unfortunate mother's wore 
while she bore him. 

" The mothers, in most cases, recognize the connec- 
tion between their feelings and the character of their 
child. 

" Mothers of several children, having one especially 
passionate child, have admitted that they were un- 
usually passionate while bearing that child, from the 
circumstance that the husband or somebody else had 
been more provoking at that time than any other. 

" A mother, rejoicing in the serene and happy 
temper of her fourth child, told me that the circum- 
stances of a hope of a better state of society, which she 
was experiencing during her gestation of that child, and 
her having then learned that her temper would affect 
that of the child she bore, had given her happier feel- 
ings, and caused her to guard against ill temper and to 
cultivate kind feelings. 

" A married couple, with a medium amount of brain 
between them, were happy in mind and in pecuniary 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 169 

condition — the wife was without care, and without pur- 
suits, when their first child was born ; that child had a 
smaller proportion of brain than either of her parents, 
and when she was twelve years of age, her mother said 
of her : < She is just as thoughtless as I was when I 
bore her ;' but during the wife's second gestation, there 
was a variation in the circumstances of the couple ; the 
pecuniary failure of a trusted friend reduced them to 
poverty, and to the necessity of finding some new 
means of supporting themselves and children ; this 
aroused every faculty of their minds that before was 
sluggish — the change being greater in the wife, who 
then, and ever after, participated in earning their 
living, and who became active in contriving to obtain 
for her family the utmost comfort that small means 
could afford ; the second child was weak in body, but 
active and vigorous in mind ; the third child had a 
quiet, thoughtful force of character, and they and all 
the succeeding children had larger brains than the 
first child had, and they promised (under ordinary 
mental culture,) to have larger brains than their 
parents have. 

" These cases will suffice to illustrate the principle ; 
such cases come within every one's notice. The exist- 
ing national circumstances will have marked effect on 
many children now in the womb ; hope in some minds, 
terror in others ; timidity in some, courage in others ; 
and all the various states of mind that the war 
engenders will make many children, born during its 
continuance, differ in character from their brothers and 
sisters." 

America is a new continent. We have here the 
8 



170 MORNING LECTURES. 

richest and most expansive prairies. Do you see any- 
thing corresponding to them in the American people ? 
Yes ! Broad, rich, expansive, enterprising minds ! In 
the far-spreading West, where great prairies sweep 
away like shoreless oceans, there the most impressible 
people are largely liberal and prairie-like in their 
ambitions. I do not mean that those who have recently 
gone from eastern States are in character like the 
external prairie ; but especially do I mean those who 
were born and reared there, who have received their 
first impressions of Nature from the windows and doors 
of a prairie-home. Such minds are like the physical 
" circumstances " which surround them. They slff>w 
muscular tendencies and mental powers which have 
been imparted by their physical environments. They 
are like the soil — very independent of embarrassment 
— not always deep, but very broad and sweeping in 
their opinions of men, customs, and fashions. The 
spirit of Freedom, like the fire that unrestrainedly 
rolls over the ocean land, gathers strength every hour 
in the West. It is to be the most remarkable seat of 
social and national experience in this country. The 
most remarkable battles will be fought in the West. 
Freedom there is not the New England idea of Free- 
dom. It is the spirit of do-what-you-have-a-mind-to- 
do-ativeness — a sort of individual license not yet 
attuned to either justice or freedom. It is the prairie- 
form of national independence, however, which is 
beginning to rapidly educate and expand the powers 
of the Western mind. I do not mean to say that these 
"circumstances" will mature and culminate in a revo- 
lution in the West. But this I am impressed to say. 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 171 

that the Western world is affecting the minds of the 
people in such a manner as to cause them, in one of 
these coming years, to lose all national and political 
relationship to the people of the great mountains of the 
East; and the people of the mountains in the Eastern 
States, who will aid in determining these historic 
events, will be ready to yield to the West the most 
wholesale independence. The people are being edu- 
cated out of old-time opinions and institutions. They 
are emancipated from their primal soils and climates, 
and they begin to forget the sunshine and starshine of 
previous generations; so that they easily glide into 
new " circumstances/ 5 by which they are imperceptibly 
molded and developed to a different plan. 

The American mind, I think, is gradually assuming 
the form and tendencies of the mind of the Aborigines. 
The American mind is every day becoming less govern- 
able by old-time codes. It will no longer import its 
ideas of government ; it no longer can import its 
religion ; music for the people can scarcely be copied 
from trans-Atlantic sources. Fifty years more, and 
the American mind will be setting up for itself in 
religion, in government, in music, in art. New schools 
upon the new soils will spring up. Americans have 
hitherto imitated and profited by the old examples and 
masters. Possible artists yet go over to Italy to study 
the old pictures. But the true American would rather 
study the artist, when he gets home, than to study 
what he has studied. When the art-lover returns and 
receives again the " circumstances " of his own native 
country into his mind, then he rises out of slumberous 
Italy and above all those Medieval schools of inspira- 



172 MORNING LECTURES. 

tion, and becomes once more loyal to the providential 
spirit of Progress which pervades the Continent of 
America. 

The aboriginal spirit is bold, defiant, incorrigible, 
and independent. It can be broken and dispersed ; it 
cannot be conquered. Some minds pride themselves 
upon their Anglo-Saxon origin. They think that that 
race is unconquerable. That is not history. If we are 
really the descendants of Anglo-Saxons, we shall be 
conquered; because they were conquered in the very 
first stages of their development in England. And they 
have in them the spirit of " obedience" to " law 55 to 
such an extent that a potentate would be welcomed by 
them. There is a welcoming prayer put up, especially 
through commerce and politics, for the safe and speedy 
arrival of some Dictator. Many descendants of Anglo- 
Saxons would vote for the inauguration of a Monarch in 
this country ! But the spirit of the true people of the 
country has not yet been declared. That is supremely 
aboriginal. It is the spirit of personal independence, 
of national largeness, of great commercial expansive- 
ness, and of unbounded research and enterprise. These 
conditions in the minds of true Americans come from 
physical " circumstances/ 5 from climate and the soils, 
including water, the action of the sun through its heat 
and light, the influences of the moon and stars, and from 
yet more powerful effects bestowed by the Summer- 
Land. 

Next come the nearer and more potent " circum- 
stances' 3 known as societary influences. Fortunately, 
they are transitory. But they come very near. They 
almost touch your nervous system. They control your 



i 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 173 

actions more than any or all the other influences men- 
tioned. Not more positively, perhaps, but more sensi- 
bly and immediately. When a human mind is touched 
by its immediate discordant surroundings, the soul feels 
them as quickly and as disagreeably as you feel a dress 
that does not fit your form, or a new shoe that pinches 
your tenderest toes. Societary influences act directly 
upon your character. If I should let fall but ten drops 
of ink into a tumblerful of water, those ten drops would 
be instantly dissolved and diffused through all parts of 
the fluid, and there is no chemistry that can restore that 
water to its original condition. The new element 
becomes incorporated inseparably with the receptive 
water. 

So the circumstantial and potent drops that have 
been added to your soul's fluids from the streams of 
society have not been thrown off, but have been ab- 
sorbed. They have bqcome parts of your sensations and 
exterior character. Your outward faculties are im- 
pressed to assume the shape and properties of the near- 
est and strongest powers. Societary influences are 
positive and imperative, and they mold mankind in 
proportion to their nearness. They are inevitably con- 
nected with family relations, with particular duties, 
with business obligations, and always with selfish pur- 
suits and interests. 

The next set of " circumstances" which are always 
around a man, and which are still more inward, and 
influential, and potential, are phrenological. It is not 
customary to say that the brain organs in a man's 
cranium are " circumstances." But if you examine 
yourself closely, you will find that you have a. phrenology 



174 MORNING LECTURES. 

which you are not, but belonging to you as tools belong 
to a mechanic. You naturally say to the Phrenologist : 
"I wish an examination of my phrenology — of my or- 
gans" — Jhus making a philosophical and perfectly 
accurate distinction between yourself and your phrenolo- 
gical " circumstances." You say to him: " Sir, I wish to 
know what powers (organs) I have, according to your 
science and measurement." You thus get mapped out, 
for future reference, your phrenological circumstances. 
You take the book containing your Chart, and examine 
the names, and figures, and sizes, and functions, as one 
would look at a box of carpenter's tools. There is 
"tune," and here is "ideality," "sublimity," "con- 
science," and .close under the brain is " combativeness," 
and so on — all the time separating yourself, and reserv- 
ing your individual judgment and consciousness, from 
the details of the map which locates and describes your 
phrenological circumstances. A t thoughtful man never 
naturally says: "I wish the phrenologist to examine 
me." He who so addresses himself to a phrenologist, 
says something he does not comprehend. The compre- 
hending power in the spirit never so speaks with refer- 
ence to itself. It speaks only of something which is 
"circumstantial" to its most interior consciousness. 
However analytical you may be, you never undertake 
to analyze the consciousness of the consciousness which 
first sought and suggested the investigation. At one 
time I supposed that I could ultimately comprehend my 
own inmost. The consciousness of consciousness in me, 
which longed for and dictated the investigations, would 
not submit to self-comprehension. I found, what every 
one of you will find, sooner or later, that your inmost 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 175 

consciousness is an eternal reservation. It touches in- 
finitude on every side. It demands and permits no final 
sell-comprehending analysis. It allies itself eternally 
with infinite Principles, and takes little interest in 
evanescent "thoughts." Spirit indulges the sportive 
play of " thoughts" in a supplementary way ; merely 
tolerates them, but always with graceful concessions to 
their fleeting juvenescence. 

Now it is to be remembered that these phrenological 
" circumstances" aifect us more potentially than do our 
most intimate social " circumstances," because the former 
are so much more closely identified with the brain's 
workings. We are incarcerated within these cranial 
walls, and we reflect truthfully that we did not erect 
them. Many find entire justification, as they suppose, 
for any eccentricity, or for the habitual gratification of 
any impulse, or for any misconduct or mismanagement 
of which they are culpable, on the ground that they have 
rceived, by transmission, a bad phrenological organiza- 
tion for which they are not responsible. They justify 
themselves and say to mother and father : " Look at 
my phrenology! How could I help it?" Do you not 
see that there is reserved power in spite of which you 
seek justification in your " circumstances " ? But while 
you will not always find justification, you may find 
plenty of pity and sympathy from kindly-natured per- 
sons, who estimate carefully your circumstances, and 
who try in charity to comprehend what measure of 
influence they* exerted upon your motives and actions. 
Phrenology proves that " organs" about the soul exert 
upon personal disposition and character a distinct and 
positive influence. 



176 MORNING LECTURES. 

Next, we are to examine our physiological "cir- 
cumstances." We did not primarily make our physio- 
logical organs, but we do make the " conditions" under 
which those organs are required to perform their func- 
tions. Our physiological conditions come out of our foods, 
and drinks, and methods of living, and out of our 
habits — out of too little sleep, or too much of it ; out 
of our industries, or out of our continued idleness — in 
short, whatever we may do, or not do, contributes to the 
formation of our physiological " conditions/' But our phy- 
siological circumstances (by which I mean organization,) 
were bestowed without premeditation from our parents. 
We inherit the bodily forms and functions with our 
phrenology, as the latter came with our social and phy- 
siological surroundings. Thus it stands : A man is 
born into his physiology, born into his phrenology, born 
into his society, born into his geography, into his climate ; 
so that each individual is deposited (so to say,) amid 
many and various concentric circles of shaping and 
molding influences. Mark you, the man is born into 
them ; they do not make the man. The human spirit is 
born into the center of these concentric dynamic circles 
of circumstances; and the circle nearest to the spirit 
will first exert its constructive influence upon disposi- 
tion and character. 

Your physiological circumstances are first predomi- 
nant. The contents of your phrenology — the brain 
organs — do not first influence you. The child first 
responds to the demands of its physiological circum- 
stances. The young mind is affected first by the shape 
of the spine, by the action of the several joints, by the 
tendons and ligaments, by the size and proportions of 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 177 

the organs within the body, and, lastly, by the per- 
formance of their functions. The little child is in sym- 
pathy with its bodily organs and forces — with the 
ponderable parts and imponderable powers that make 
up the physiological circumstances of its inmost life. 
Its mind and feelings will be in bondage to them. Its 
life- manifestations will be in accordance with them 
until the phrenological circumstances begin to exert 
themselves upon the feelings and character. Then the 
little child changes from a physiological to a phrenolo- 
gical being. 

This dependence upon phrenology may continue for 
years. Then come the constructive powers of social 
and physical circumstances. The child-mind then be- 
gins to exhibit the action of social and physical circum- 
stances upon both its physiology and phrenology. The 
young constitution very soon responds to the most out- 
ward "circumstances" — the physical globe, its clima- 
tology, its topography, and the soil ; the action of the 
sun, its heat and its light; moisture, dryness, &c, &c. ; 
whatever, in short, is considered appropriate or exist- 
ing in the world of physical circumstances, is concerned 
more or less conspicuously in framing and making up 
the human character. 

Spirit is in the center. Begin thus, at the pivot, 
and count the concentric circles. First, its physiologic- 
al circumstances; second, its phrenological; third, its 
societary; fourth, its physical or geographical — the 
most external of all. Now do you not know that some 
persons remain through life under one or two of these 
concentric "circumstances"? Certain minds allow 
themselves to be molded and fashioned by whatever is 
8* 



178 MORNING LECTURES. 

nearest and most allied to their interests. They die at 
the end of fifty, sixty, or perhaps one hundred years, 
having been molded and shaped by one set of circum- 
stances, and only transiently affected by the others. 

Spirit, the inmost and eternal, is no such victim. It 
is the source of power. Force is animal. The soul is 
composed of motion, life, sensation, and intelligence. 
In the animal but little; in the man, much. That 
power which is at the center of life, which is destined 
to gain the mastery, which takes hold upon infinitude, 
which is allied with whatsoever is divine and omnipo- 
tent, which is twin-born with justice, and truth, and 
virtue, and with all that is pure, and noble, and sub- 
lime — that power resides at the heart-seat of your life, 
the coming Lord of all circumstances. I am now 
•speaking to that power in you. Some will hear; others 
w r ill not. In the millions the Inmost has not yet 
asserted its supremacy. Of course such do not feel them- 
selves even partial masters of their influential circum- 
stances. 

The spirit's battles are to be fought through power, 
not through force. But " force" is necessary. It is 
part of man's intelligence — is natural to motion, life, 
and sensation. But there is invariably as large an 
amount of defeat as there is of victory in battles of mere 
force. " Action and reaction are equal ;" so say all 
who study the laws of mechanics. They must calculate 
for loss of power by reaction in all mechanism which 
moves by means of motive power. Now what is man? 
Does he not start out as a mechanism — the most perfect 
and the most fearful and wonderful piece of machinery 
in the world ? The necessities and circumstances of 



THE SPIItIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 179 

his physiological organs cause him to call for drink, for 
clothing, for protection, for home, for love, and the inef- 
fable attentions and blessedness of that love. Then his 
phrenology brings in its influence. All his brain- 
organs have motives, impulses, and powers, hidden in 
their centers. 

But the time comes wlien, over and above all, a di- 
vine power — according to the definition first given — is 
born and revealed from within. This power comes 
through the soul. The soul is the battle-ground. 
Forces, instead of powers, first prevail. People are 
weary with battling with intellectual error, and, most 
of all, weary from battling with their " circum- 
stances" — fatigued, annoyed, exhausted, despairing. 
Certain minds grow disloyal to principles by means of 
too long indulged indifference. They cease to take an 
interest in themselves, and they retire from the battle- 
field vanquished and " demoralized." Others go through 
all of life's battle, then they lie down at the end of the 
many struggles, and finally die from sheer mental ex- 
haustion. But it is only " force" that fails. Power 
never feels exhaustion, never desponds, never " gives up 
the ship." Force, through the organs of your intelli- 
gence, plans the way. Power, however, will often con- 
duct you to a very different plan and different result. 
You begin life with the impulsive ambitions of " force" 
— with many inclinations for worldly distinctions — and 
you fix all your intellectual plans to consummate the 
ends of such ambitions. But presently you find that 
there is a " power" behind and within and above, shaping 
your destiny ! And every step you take in your plans 
is a disheartening defeat. The very end which you 



180 MORNING LECTURES. 

supposed " impossible' 5 is the only thing " possible" for 
you to do. And those things that seemed to you most 
desirable and possible — most in the direction of your 
selfish preferences and energies, and most gratifying 
and attractive to your ambitions — were just the things 
which could not be done by you, because you had not 
power to control your concentric circles of "circum- 
stances," which included the affections, thoughts, plans, 
and wills of many people. Society would not permit 
itself to be marshaled into the files of your aims. 
Therefore you could not conquer by " force" — some- 
thing deeper, something higher, which may be termed 
" power," was needed. 

What else have you with which you could conquer ? 
Use mere " force" and you are utterly vanquished. 
Church people talk very beautifully and approvingly 
about those submissive, pious souls, who say, " Father, 
thy will, not mine de done." Well, there is in that 
moral condition an interior truth. Do you suppose that 
those who were lovingly engaged in laying the founda- 
tions of the Christian system, were all mistaken in their 
spiritual experience? Certainly not. They uttered 
and wrote memorable words from an inward conviction 
and experience. What does it mean to be submissive 
to God's will ? It means that " spiritual power" — not 
mere vital force — must . be permitted to have its own 
way in mapping out and regulating your destiny, and 
thus always to have the predominance of authority in 
the shaping of private experience. Power is long and 
patient in suffering, can unmurmuringly bear great out- 
ward persecution and contumely, and can bear up under 
all the trials and defeats which afflict you in the pil- 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 181 

grimage of life. Power, which is always from spirit, is 
never conquered. Force, which is always from vitality, 
or soul, is vanquished at every step. Sometimes, indeed, 
it commits suicide. It loses breath and drops below 
from the very climax of its victory, because force is 
only an animal energy arising from the physiological 
and phrenological organs, and its eiforts must necessa- 
rily be violent, exhausting and suicidal. 

Whoso feels this " power" feels also what we term 
a Principle. Whoso feels what we term a Principle, 
also feels good and truth, or God, invariably in that 
same proportion and to that same measure of interior 
consciousness. And whoso feels God living in the 
form of Justice and Truth in his soul, is never con- 
quered. 

Suppose the soul that feels Truth, or Justice, or 
• God, be put on a cross and crucified — what does that 
outward persecution amount to? I never could under- 
stand the " Much Ado about Nothing'' in the Churches. 
What soul-harrowing accounts of the heart-crushing 
persecution which attended and destroyed " the Man of 
God" — that is, the Man of Power! One of two things 
is certain — either that when "the Man of God" was 
being crucified he failed to realize the presence and 
power of his own immortal Spirit, or else the whole 
Calvary scene was spectacular and dramatical, and 
permitted for " effect." It was either a performance, or 
else there was a failure on the part of the persecuted 
to realize the presence and power of Truth. If it was 
no failure in this particular, then we must conclude his 
physical sufferings were not different, nor more severe 
or agonizing, than were those of numbers of human 



182 MORNING LECTURES. 

beings who have innocently died on gibbets, in flames, 
or upon scaffolds. Physiological suffering is the same 
with all organized humanity. Very sensitive persons 
experience inconceivable intensity of suffering for a few 
moments. But who believes that any human being has 
ever sweat " drops of blood" in consequence of his physi- 
cal suffering? If, at the moment of the crucifixion, 
either by cross or by other means of destroying human 
life, the spirit should lose its conscious contact with the 
source of " power/' then, indeed, the sufferer might 
almost sweat blood in the throes of his mortal and 
spiritual agony. Blood might flow out from a bursted 
vein. But there is too much said about "the sufferings 
of Jesus." The exaggeration of his agony, in simply 
dying as part of his mission, is unjustifiable; the tears 
of sympathy that have been shed over the mortal agonies 
of a man who died a no more terrible death than thou- - 
sands of others have, ought to have been shed for more 
genuine sufferings. Jesus first carried his cross to the 
place of execution, and was then physiologically put to 
death. There is no logical proportion between the 
physical sufferings of the individual and the dramatic 
effect with which pulpits " harrow up one's feelings." 
One view or the other must be taken — either Jesus died 
in great agony to emphatically impress the world with 
the importance of his mission, or else it was really true 
that he felt that God had departed from his soul, and 
that, perhaps, he was suffering without any just and 
sufficient reason. An overwhelming feeling of agonizing 
doubt might have caused blood to rush from his veins ; 
but if he had a full sense of his perfect spiritual unity 
with the Divine Source, what would it have been to be 



THE SPIRIT AXD ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 183 

" shot," or forced to drink " poison" like Socrates, or 
"gibbeted," or " burned at the stake," like the early 
martyrs and patriots? What would such bodily agony 
amount to in a righteous cause ? Nothing at all. Look 
at the brave-souled martyrs, in the consuming fires, all 
going heavenward with songs of praise on their lips ! 
How many of them were moved with prayer and to 
expressions of gratitude while standing in the midst of 
flames ! Vastly more sublime, many of them, than was 
the scene of the Cross-death on the mount. Why be 
absurd in weeping over this matter of a teacher of 
Justice and Truth dying in vindication of his testimony ? 
Let us now return to our theme. The shortest 
method to conquer " circumstances/' is to ally yourself 
with Principles. Suppose you say : w I can comprehend 
only one thing, viz., the idea of Progress." Keep in 
mind, now, that the idea is a Principle. Now. suppose 
you say : " To that Principle I will be loyal, though the 
heavens fall." Can you not take that positive position? 
Whatever seems to me to be true, that I will adhere to, 
though I lose the whole world. And I will adhere to 
it with power, not with ;< force." Force is animal : it 
is not " power." Secure your spirit by an indomitable 
adherence to some divine. Principle. Fix your nature 
in its true orbit, and forthwith you are above anger, 
above enmity, above petty vices, above low motives, 
above vindictiveness, and, therefore, you are master and 
p-overnor of all those demons of discord that beset vour 
path. In proportion as you are- loyal to a Principle, 
you will receive inspiration, and thus " power'" is added 
to that life which is integral and eternal. The divine, 
in ultimates, always gains a victory over what is earthly 



184 MORNING LECTURES. 

and unworthy. In theology, however, the devil always 
has the upper hand. But, in fact and in truth, the devil 
is always under — in outer and in utter darkness. Dis- 
cord — force — the war element — is finally put down. 
The animal world is beneath man ; the angel world is 
above man; higher worlds roll over the angel-world; 
the divinest Sphere through and within them all ; and 
the Supreme eventually conquers. In this rudimental 
world of ours, the man of war is not a conqueror, nor is 
the earth itself a conqueror; but the sun, with its 
inconceivable opulence and abundance, is grandly 
triumphant. And yet how silently the sun does all its 
omnipotent work ! It does not send out a flaming 
letter to say : " I shall give you a very fine day 
to-morrow; I shall show you a worldful of warmth; 
a great flood of light will I pour over your habitations." 
But it rolls right on, and shines beneficently, and 
warms the fields, and brings mankind a wondrous wealth 
of golden harvests. The sun is the "power" of wise 
affection personified. 

Whenever the consciousness of a Principle is born 
in the human spirit, from that moment it ceases to be a 
"thing," and becomes a "power." In force you see 
what is rudimental ; in " power" that which is sublime. 
No defeat in power ; always defeat in force. 

Take any divine Principle; such as Liberty or 
Brotherhood. Learn the beautiful lesson of strict loy- 
alty to your deepest conviction. Become harmonious 
with a principle, and you become, to the same extent, 
" a power. " Instead of feeling weary in battling with 
circumstances, you receive accessions of celestial strength 
from invisible sources. A friend may ask : " Do you 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 185 

Dot grow weary with labor V " No/' you reply. " I 
never think of it." Why? Because God and Nature, 
or immutable Justice and Truth, breathe into your nos- 
trils " the breath of life" — that is, if you are absolutely 
loyal to a Principle. Loyalty is power, as knowledge is 
power; and in true power there is victory, without 
exhaustion. You stand as " a power" in the center of 
substances — a centerstance — in the center of your phy- 
siology, in your phrenology, in your society, and amid still 
more external atmospheres and soils. 

In the Bible you read that if a man does not single- 
heartedly and absolutely follow Truth, if he does not 
leave his father and mother " for my sake, he is not 
worthy of me." That is what Truth said to the world- 
long, long ago. The writer, unfortunately, wrote down 
the name of an individual instead of " Truth." To 
some minds, "the man" personifies a Principle. It is 
reported that he said, " I am the way, the truth, and 
the life." Matthew, Mark, and Luke, have reported 
the Nazarene as identifying himself with the principle 
of Truth, or with God. " If a man does not forsake 
"father and mother, son and daughter, he is not worthy 
of Truth." 

Let each identify himself with divine Principles, 
and if wife, or husband, or son, or daughter, or Mrs. 
Grundy, or any other relation does not choose to har- 
monize with that Principle, but is determined that you 
shall be an apostate and a rebel to it, then you should 
say, ifc Clear the way. My path is chosen. I shall walk 
according to my deepest, highest, most sacred con- 
victions, though the heavens fall." Feel and follow the 
principle of Truth, and you will find that no earth-rela- 



186 MORNING LECTURES. 

tion is important. Take any Principle your soul maj 
choose, and he faithful to it, " come what may." Sup- 
pose you be driven out of your business to-morrow ; 
suppose your children starve ; suppose they should 
perish and die. Some of you look upon the death of a 
martyr as " sublime.'' Or you go back in your ima- 
gination to Calvary, and there you behold another 
" sublime spectacle/ 5 There you behold the death of a 
man who went into society at the lowest door, who was 
persecuted and despised in the midst of his philanthro- 
pic labors. Did he set a very good example of obedi- 
ence to his mother or his father when the doctors in the 
temple needed his instructions ? His mother, you recol- 
lect, was very apprehensive about him. Did he stop 
for that? It was more important that he should be 
engaged in the impartation of what was welling up in 
his soul than to obey the requisitions of his mother, 
who had no distinct idea of what her son's mission was. 
The Catholics, however, have made a Saint of her. 
Beautiful picture! I love the painted Madonna; there 
is an idea in the conception. Anything truly beautiful 
is eternal. But the son did not seem to know any- 
thing very important about his mother. He had to be 
loyal to Truth, even if seemingly disloyal to heart- 
requisitions. 

Now we are all children. We have parents, and 
grandmothers, and grandfathers. These relations make 
positive social requisitions upon us. A kindly religious 
mother says : " Don't ! I beg of you — don't go to Pro- 
gressive Hall; if you do, I shall get heart-sick and 
die." Well, if it be necessary, let her die. Be strong 
and firm. There is much folly in " compromise." If you 



THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 187 

have a Truth, stand by it ! Let people see that you, 
like a miner in a dark world, carry a lamp in the front 
part of your mind — " the light that lighteth every man 
who cometh into the world" — shedding its effulgent 
rays over all your terrestrial path. If you be faithful 
to your best experience and highest convictions, it will 
shake the citadel of old theology to its foundations, and 
your expanding influence will revolutionize the cities 
and the kingdoms of the world. If you try it, there 
will be a great struggle among your relatives to rule 
your course. In these days, however, you will find 
plenty of spiritual company to aid you in your strug- 
gles. But the time was when a person had to' make 
spiritual struggling all alone. Happily, that time is 
passed. Let your spirit fully identify itself with Princi- 
ples. Then you can surely and noiselessly " overcome 
evil with good." You will go on, quietly conquering 
and to conquer — victorious every step of the way — and 
thus reach the inmost heart of the Eternal Mind. 



ETERNAL VALUE OF PURE PURPOSES, 



" A good man is God's best legacy to tfcis straying world." 

The human mind irresistibly seeks for uses, ends, 
results. It is impossible to repress this tendency of our 
intellectual and imaginative powers. They naturally 
trace out ultimates. This is true, because the mind is 
constituted with a specific ultimate — because it is itself 
the development of a central design. The mental 
organization carries out its tendencies as naturally as 
the dancing streamlets flow from mountain-sides to the 
welcoming plains. It is the involuntary flow of the 
interior — through the reasoning powers — toward ulti- 
mates! If the reasoning powers are well-balanced, 
vigorous, and pure, the rule then is, that the under- 
standing, by moving steadily along the line of logic, 
will arrive at the most reasonable solution of whatever 
problem is' presented. This uniform reasonableness is 
what men call " common sense. 5 ' Persons having this 
sixth sense — this admirable arrangement of these beau- 
tiful and immortal endowments — can take in a large 
field of observation, and arrive rapidly at healthy and 
certain conclusions. It is, so to say, a clairvoyance of 
the reasoning powers. Some minds, by the exercise, of 
such common sense — that is to say, by obtaining the 



ETERNAL VALUE OF PURE PURPOSES. 189 

verdict of a well-balanced class of intellectual thinking 
powers — seem to see as accurately through the incoming 
future, and to prophesy events and results, as though 
Clairvoyance itself sat enthroned in the spirit. Clair- 
voyance is the far-soaring eagle's flight — the lightning's 
flash — along the line of cause and effect. It arrives at 
remote results without the exercise of the reasoning 
powers. Hence the clairvoyant may not, in the ordinary 
state, possess what is called " common sense." Clair- 
voyance, in many minds, gets the start by years, and, 
in some instances, it may be centuries in advance of 
the moral growth and out-rounding of the soul. 

The forecasting abilities of the intellectual facul- 
ties — the grasping healthily all parts and details of the 
field of perception and consciousness — is the normal 
exercise of man ? s normal and beautiful endowments. 
Their exercise promotes and advances the individual to 
the superior state ; to attain which, many minds are 
obliged first to be magnetized or mediumized. Very 
great mediums are sometimes no better or wiser in 
matters within the sphere of common sense, even while 
under the influence of the afflatus, than are some persons 
who have no such experience, but who, by the natural 
and just exercise of their energetic and well-balanced 
powers, philosophically see principles, causes, effects, 
and their results. 

This irresistible tendency, streaming through all 
the thinking powers, demonstrates the central fact that 
the spirit is constructed on a plan of pure reason and 
harmony. This harmonial design lies in the very found- 
ation of the human mind. The spiritual universe is 
filled with Designs. You naturally ask, " Cui bono ?" 



190 MORNING LECTURES. 

— what use, or what good ? This question was asked 
of every new thing that ever started. The irrepressi- 
ble tendency of the spirit to put this question, is owing 
to the fundamental fact that the mind itself is con- 
structed upon a living divine Design — upon Use. 
Nothing grows, nothing walks, nothing wings its way 
through the free air — whether great or insignificant, 
beautiful or otherwise — but gives rise to questions of 
Use, in the little child as well as in the mind of the full- 
grown man or woman. The first conception that a 
man or woman must attain to, before the spirit-mind is 
rounded out and fashioned into the beautiful and har- 
monious proportions of a pure Purpose, is this concep- 
tion of inborn Use. You remember the Platonic, 
spiritual verse in the third chapter of John, where the 
materialist, Nicodemus, came and held a conversation 
with the illuminated son of Joseph and Mary. How 
beautifully and truthfully it was said that " That which 
is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born 
of the spirit, is spirit." We know by the uni- 
versal testimony of the world — yet more certainly by 
experience and observation — that that which is flesh 
dies, goes down, sickens, and despairs ; while that 
which is spirit goes up and on — because retrogression 
to it is impossible — because, like truth, it is immortal 
and cannot die ! A Purpose that is conceived in the 
spirit, which is brought forth in the beauty of its 
powers — a Purpose which goes before the soul like a 
pillar of guiding light, drawing it magnetically onward 
— is certain to consecrate, to lift, to renew, to baptize, 
to round out, to make perfect, angelic, heavenly, even 
as the Infinite is perfect. 



ETERNAL VALUE OF PURE PURPOSES. 191 

A high, pure Purpose, be it remembered, is possible 
only to spirit. Ambition is earthly; aspiration is 
spiritual. They are analogous, resemble each other, 
just as common sense, in its healthful exercise, bears a 
likeness to the superior condition, with its pure and 
independent clairvoyance. A human mind may be 
actuated by ;t ambition," and the individual may suc- 
cessfully go on in the road which the ambition indi- 
cates, but its success will be parallel with the earth, 
with society, with what is for the hour called " success," 
"victory," " conquest ;" while the mind that dreamily 
and confidingly floats in the celestial rivers of " aspira- 
tion," may not be successful according to popular 
standards of judgment. . Such a person may seem to 
fail,- or really fail, when measured by the world's rules 
of success ; but, believe me, that soul surely succeeds in 
whatsoever is permanent and glorious, because its pure 
Purpose brings the inmost spirit into harmony with 
pure Truth, which is eternal ! There is no failure, no 
defeat, no killing disappointment, in the mind that is 
exclusively moved by a high Purpose in its external 
relations to mankind. Success always attends the steps 
of such an one. But when a person is moved by an 
"ambition" to accomplish an ordinary end — which 
would be considered by society a high and victorious 
result — he is sure to be defeated. This wretched expe- 
rience dates from the time he starts, and is continued 
until he sits down in his uneasy chair to review^ the 
ill-spent past. 

The Jews killed the spiritually-unfolded son of Jo- 
seph and Mary. They were pre-eminently " victorious" 
in the judgment of the whole Roman Empire. His 



192 MORNIN<J LECTURES. 

arrest, trial, condemnation, and execution — each step 
was pronounced a "success" as far as the circumstances 
were known. (The fact is, however, that little or 
nothing was known of the transaction, except locally.) 
The crucifixion was considered a great " triumph" of 
law and order over anarchy and heresy. And many 
thanked those who nailed his body to the wooden cross. 
But there was one in the midst of all that row and riot, 
bloodshed and diabolism, who was momentarily and 
perfectly " successful, v viz., the man who had a pure 
Purpose enthroned in his spirit, magnetically and per- 
petually calling him onward and upward in the divine 
line of his work. 

It has been shown that Nature, through all her 
forces, works for the development of individualized 
human beings; that all the lower kingdoms and sys- 
tems of life, combined, are but the scaffolding of the 
building ; and that all parts subserve the elaboration 
and perfection of human bodies and souls. From the 
lowest monad to the animal that comes nearest man, in 
association and usefulness, there is visible^ this con- 
tinued beautiful flow of " Design," mounting up to the 
well-proportioned, harmonious human organization. 

Nature, then, has a high Purpose, and she works to 
no other End. It is not merely to organize a physiolog- 
ical being, to make a perfect anatomy and a fine phy- 
siology. Our great Mother's purpose is far, far higher. 
It is a to so construct an anatomy and physiology that 
the soul, like a garment, may be accumulated and folded 
about the more interior being, the Spirit, which is 
golden and immortal ; which will be so beautifully and 
so harmoniously arrayed, that, when we each pass from 



ETERNAL VALUE OF PURE PURPOSES. 193 

this existence, the revolutions of eternal spheres and the 
destruction of innumerable stars can never impair our 
youthfulness, or in any degree disturb the deep flow of 
the heart's exalted happiness. Yea, Nature has a high 
jand pure Purpose. If her work was simply to make a 
ifish, she would fail. If she had not a mission far above 
and beyond all fishes, reptiles, birds, marsupials, and 
mammalials — a Purpose to which those organized forms 
of life unitedly labor, of which they are but parts and 
fragments — she would " fail" utterly in all her move- 
ments and ministrations. To individualize the immortal 
human spirit, and to make for it a garment — an envelop- 
ing soul — after the fashion of the physical body, which 
shall withstand the revolutions#of eternity, and always 
be young and beautiful to look upon — this is the high 
Purpose, the pure Design, which consecrates the unal- 
terable labors of Nature, and lifts the whole system 
into a divine and glorious significance. 

Nature, therefore, has given the lesson. Can you 
not follow it ? How can you fail to respond to the 
vibration of that electric current of " Design" which 
the Divine has communicated to all parts of the spiritual 
universe, and which goes quivering and shimmering 
through systems of suns as it throbs through the facul- 
ties of your immortal mind ? I know you cannot resist 
it. You begin life by asking, " Cui bono ?" This is 
the beginning of Use. In the most inferior and ridicu- 
lous expression of that interrogatory you may see the 
alphabet of that harmonial poetry of pure " Purpose," 
which will be epical and lyrical as it sweeps through 
eternal years. 

Suppose a young man enters college. He is induced 
9 



1 94 MORNING LECTURES. 

to study for some particular profession — a lawyer, a 
physician, or, if he be not in mental and physical health, 
a clergyman. But if he be bodily robust and intel- 
lectually sturdy and strong, and is good with his jack- 
knife, why, then, perhaps, his best friends will want 
him to study for a boss-mechanic. If he has inherited 
large scheming powers, with the outlines of a lawyer, 
but deficient in the intellectual substance required for a 
high post in that profession, then he may direct his 
education toward Congress or for the Presidency. The 
young man is solemnly admonished to " aim" his studies 
at something. But this is true, that, if his aim be for 
nothing more than what is called "success" in the 
chosen profession, he is«extremely likely to turn out a 
mistake and an ordinary character. If his Purpose in 
life is embodied in the thought of being ordinarily 
"successful" in any one of its departments, then he will 
be " defeated" and crippled from the very moment of 
his graduation with such an ambition. What percent- 
age of the students, who come out of colleges, amount 
to anything, as men among men ? About twenty in 
every hundred of those who graduate from our best 
colleges amount to something in the world's esteem — all 
the rest " fail." Merchants fail in a very much larger 
proportion. Politicians fail at the rate of 140 per 
cent. Men fail in all situations just in proportion to 
the immorality of their motives. 

When a man desires to be of service to the Uni- 
verse, when he yearns to live not for his own sake, not 
for his own personal benefit alone, but for the benefit, 
advancement, civilization, and spiritualization of the 
millions, then he has in him that Savior which will 



ETERNAL VALUE OF PURE PURPOSES. 195 

preserve him from harm and from defeat through all 
disasters and earthly besetments. He can not experi- 
ence what is called demoralization or discouragement. 
He may overwork, he may lie down, as did the great- 
minded Theodore Parker, in the midst of his gigantic 
industry, and die up into the Summer-Land ; but as 
surely as that transformation takes place on earth, so 
surely, if you will but look with your intellectual tele- 
scope, you may behold a new, bright, beautiful orb, 
shining in the spiritual heavens. The politician dies at 
the same time — the man who lived for himself, for little 
earthly, siokly, temporary purposes — and goes also to 
the Summer- Life at the same time. You would be 
obliged to look with a powerful microscope to see who 
or where he was. One man's spirit shines out goldenly 
and immortally in the firmament that spans the heavenly 
sphere. The other man's spirit, on the other hand, 
hovers and shivers in the midst of all that diversified 
beauty and ineffable glory of the Infinite — is small and 
mean and cold beneath the teat and light of myriad 
suns — and would fain become a part of even one of the 
heavenly rays. 

What are we Americans doing ? What has the 
administration been trying to do ? We have been trying 
to "conquer a rebellion," but not to improve anything, 
either institutional or constitutional. The immoral 
purpose at the start was, not to improve a man, woman, 
or child on the continent, in respect to their civil, 
political, or religious circumstances, but to " crush the 
rebellion" and to restore things as they were — a philo- 
sophical absurdity, a political sham, a religious impos- 
sibility. Thus our people started with an impure 



196 MORNING LECTURES. 

purpose, filled with immoral designings, only to accom- 
plish the traditional ends of conservative power. Such 
is political power when not consecrated to divine uses ! 
The result has been " failure" on all sides, or at best, 
but indifferent temporary success. 

You have read about a Father who so loved the 
world that he gave " his only begotten son" to rectify 
its errors and to save it — in short, gave his son for the 
pure purpose of doing all the good he could. On the 
same principle a great many fathers and mothers have 
also given " their only begotten sons" to march and die 
for Freedom. Why all this sentimental weeping and 
this sickly lamentation over that glorious sacrifice of 
the infinite heart that had as much power to endure as 
to propose the work ? (We are now supposing the theo- 
logical notion to be a truth ; not that we accept it 
literally.) Here are mothers and fathers, I repeat, 
who have given their "only begotten" to save American 
Freedom from destruction ; not only so, but those sons 
have been sent to expand our Liberty, to multiply it, 
and to cause it to abound from the Atlantic to the Paci- 
fic, from the remote North to the far South. How 
many of those dearly beloved " sons" have been cruci- 
fied ! How many of them have been in our hospitals, 
drinking gall and the bitterness of wormwood, and 
swallowing as medicines all sorts of contemptible trash! 
How many of them have had bayonets thrust into their 
bleeding sides ? How many have freely poured out 
their whole lives that Liberty might " believe, be bap- 
tized, and be saved" ! Would it not be wisest to search 
outside of the realm of creeds to find objects sufficiently 
touching and sacred for the shedding of tears and the 
building of monuments ? Let us have real objects and 



ETERNAL VALUE OF PURE PURPOSES. 197 

genuine causes for sadness and lamentation, for holy 
sorrow and devotional gratitude : but no more of this 
dramatically-manufactured " holy sorrow,' 5 taught by 
men, who, perhaps, sincerely believe it, but who have 
not the courage to investigate it to its silly mythological 
foundation. Here, in this war, we have the real sacri- 
fice of truly begotten sons. The purposes of these fathers 
and mothers have been high and beautiful. * They have 
in them a source of consolation that no Bible or church 
can either impart or remove. Their patriotic sons are 
slain — crucified on the cross of battle. Look at their 
downcast and weeping friends. No minister can 
assuage their sufferings. Their heart-pains cannot be 
mitigated by prayers. Nothing will do it but time 
with its upliftings, and the onward march of the 
soul of each. 

There were many in need of useful and profitable 
employment. Some of these enlisted for the war as 
they would go into any hazardous labor. I saw and 
conversed with a Massachusetts soldier — a fine enough 
looking man — going as a private down to New Orleans 
with General Banks. I said to him, " Why did you 
enlist V " Well," he said, M wagon-making was poor 
business in our town, and I have a beautiful wife and 
two darling little ones, and they must be supported, 
and I got a bounty— r more money than I could possibly 
get if I had worked at home for a long time — and I 
gave it to them and made other provision, so that, if I 
should not get through the war, my beloved family 
will be as much benefited as though I were to remain 
with them." 

There was dwelling in that soldier's soul a " pure 
purpose. 5 *' He took his life in his hands and went to 



1S8 MORNING LECTURES. 

work for his beautiful wife and his darling two chil- 
dren. But if he had felt the urgent demands of Liberty 
also, how much more noble ! 

Thus, if a man enters as a merchant into business, 
or, as a mechanic, accepts of labors, however low and 
undignified or however high and commanding, with a 
desire to benefit others by his labor, he is in the same pro- 
portion ma-de spiritually buoyant, and the ordinary 
friction of life that would otherwise wear upon him is 
chiefly removed. He goes lovingly on to his business, 
not "dragging one foot before the other;" because he 
feels lifted and is blest — baptized and strengthened by 
the purity of his intentions. 

Live selfishly for yourself, and you will sit down at 
the end of life dissatisfied with human existence. You 
will be misanthropic, no matter whether you are sur- 
rounded by wealth or by poverty, by enemies or by 
friends. 

Therefore take to your heart the motive which is 
beautiful and heavenly in itself, live to make others 
better, and you will make yourself rounder, sweeter, 
more effective in all you do, gladsome, cheerful, buoy- 
ant, never cast down, always ready for good deeds ; 
and a beautiful warmth will pervade your home, will 
follow you into the street and into society, and noble 
beings will associate with you wherever you mingle 
wisely and lovingly with your fellow-men. 

Great men are always good men. " A good man is 
God's best legacy to this str.aying world." Such never 
" fail." The truly good cannot be unsuccessful. The 
son of Joseph and Mary was not defeated when cruci- 
fied. Verily, there is eternal value in Pure Purposes. 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AND SPIRIT. 



44 If more would act the play of life, 

And fewer spoil it in rehearsal ; 
If bigotry would sheathe its knife 

Till good became more universal ; 
If men, when wrong beats down the right, 

Would strike together and restore it ; 
If right made might in every fight, 

The world would be the better for it." 

The impression comes to speak this morning on the 
subject of war — first, of the Blood ; second, of the 
Brain ; third, of the Spirit ; or, in other language, (\.) the 
war of Gehenna, which means the underworld of pas- 
sion and selfish lusts that burn perpetually ; (2.) the 
war of the middle world, or Hades, which means the 
transition and wintery sphere in which we now live ; 
(3.) the war of the overworld, or Heaven, which means 
the moral and spiritual sphere of the immortal mind. 

Let your minds contemplate the universality of 
war. You will discover, after investigation, that war 
is universal. War is not excluded from heaven — i. e.- 9 
from the presence of the inmost Spirit, although it ori- 
ginates only in the blood and in the force-departments 
of the brain. I speak now of the universality of the 
struggles, the encroachments, the infringements, and of 
the aggressional tendencies of all forces locked up and 



200 MORNING LECTURES. 

embodied in the organization of matter — beneath, 
within, and round about us in the great universe that 
fills immeasurable space. 

All investigators discover penetralia within pene- 
tralia, truths within truths; or, as it is commonly 
expressed, wheels within wheels, designs within designs, 
and uses within uses in endless succession. Such 
inquiring minds come at last to the wise conclusion that, 
in the inmost of things, is written the unchangeable 
commandments (the laws of Nature) by which all things 
are regulated and governed in perpetual order, good- 
ness, and perfection. 

A handwriting in milk held to the fire, becomes 
plain, though invisible before it was so subjected. So 
the infinite designs and immutable laws written in human 
nature, as upon the whole universe, do not become 
plain to your understanding until you are fully sub- 
jected to the fires of infringements and transgressions, 
and tried by the irrepressible tendency of your investi- 
gating powers to pass through, and over, and between 
all things. Something important to the whole universe 
takes place every instant of time. No tide is perfectly 
inert. Water presupposes motion, forward and back- 
ward, or rising and falling. The action of rising and 
falling tides upon substances pulverizes and converts 
them into itself — dissolves solid rocks and makes them 
flow with its movement. Physiologists discoyer that the 
liver is composed of an infinite number of lesser organs; 
or, more strictly speaking, they find that the liver is com- 
posed of very minute lobes, which in appearance exactly 
resemble the whole structure. The liver is a cellar, 
because it is composed of cells. How many persons 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AND SPIRIT. 201 

experience the truth of this ! The liver is Hades. It is 
the dark repository or grave-yard of whatsoever is 
broken-down in the constitution of the arterial blood. 
It is always gaining and always losing. Disease is pro- 
duced just as quickly by an excess as by a deficiency. 

Now what is the world's system of politics? Is it 
not the liver or kitchen department of human govern- 
ment and enterprise — a desire for system and regula- 
tion and order — composed of an infinite number of 
lesser policies, as the liver is composed of a countless 
number of infinitesimal livers ? 

It was said that a writing in milk when exposed to 
fire, becomes plain to the eye. So the Infinite laws and 
ultimate designs, exposed to the progressive abrasions 
and fiery frictions and irrepressible conflicts of human 
mind and moving matter, are brought into open reveal- 
ment; and only those faithful seers, who have wise 
eyes, can read the handwriting clearly, and truly inter- 
pret the Idea at the heart of the infinite designs. How 
do scientific men stand before the great universe of 
design ? They say, " Matter is regulated by unvarying 
methods. These methods are laws." Here the spiritual 
philosopher approaches. He discovers within laws 
principles, within principles ideas, within ideas the 
infinitely and eternally thinking Father-God, and the 
impersonal love-fountain of the universe, or Mother- 
Nature. The spiritual philosopher finds something 
deeper and better and more interiorly satisfying than 
that which is brought to the world through external 
scieuce. He discovers that the impersonal love-fount- 
ain, from which all things flow, is Nature, and that 
this productive heart of infinite love is ;t Mother." He 
9* 



202 MORNING LECTURES. 

discovers that Nature is not matter. Nature is a general 
term for the Mother-fountain of Love which moves and 
forms and molds all things, in conjunction with the 
masculine laws of Wisdom. The impersonal mind- 
fountain — of formative laws and organizing energies — 
is the Father-Nature. " God is a spirit." The New 
Testament adds : " And he seeketh such to worship 
him." 

Why use the masculine adjective with reference to 
Deity? Because the mind instinctively thinks of God 
as the source of thought and energy — executive, forma- 
tive, and legislative. 

If I were a clergyman (which, fortunately, I am 
not,) I should state this theological proposition in very 
different phraseology. Undoubtedly, I would employ 
New Testament language, or such words as would cor- 
respond to lessons that I had learned from authoritative 
books on theology. And yet, although I do not so 
employ language, I believe that I am not in conflict 
with the essential truths at the center of enlightened 
minds. I know not a civilized clergyman in the land 
with whom I might not shake hands on some of these 
theological principles. For example : They believe, or 
profess to believe, in a Supreme Source. So do we. 
They give it the theological, religious, and oriental 
name — " God." We give it the spiritual, philosophical, 
and scientific name — " Father-Nature." The secta- 
rian war rises and continues from a vastly different use 
of human language with regard to identical meanings. 
Not interpreting the meaning which we intend to con- 
vey — by the use of different words, we kindle up 
antagonism in our neighbor's mind ; and on the other 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AND SPIRIT. 203 

hand, when he announces his thought, the meaning 
whereof not being fully conveyed to our mind, a corres- 
ponding fire is kindled up, and forthwith an explosion 
takes place — and an everlasting enmity and opposition 
drive out the angels of peace. There can be no recon- 
ciliation so long as men will not stop, in their haste, to 
give each other the ■ central meanings which they 
designed should flow through their educational use of 
language. Let all men be cautious and just. Within all 
this mountainous mass of educational verbiage and con- 
troversy you may find, if you look patiently, the beautiful 
Sowings of identical immortal truths. The brotherhood 
of truth makes this " fraternity of ideas" absolutely 
certain in all true human hearts. 

Mother-Nature and Father-Nature— who might 
with propriety be named the Love-life and the Wisdom- 
power- of the universe— live in eternal conjugal rela- 
tion each with the other. Matter is the indestructible 
chariot in which they together ride through the illim- 
itable star-strewn spaces of infinitude. We must learn 
to think deeply on this subject. We must deepen out 
of words into meanings, and penetrate through mean- 
ings to the source of inspiration. 

Water is the expression of inherent contention — the 
to and fro movement of the material and spiritual uni- 
verse. By means of this movement — this perpetual 
overthrow of equilibriums — all things are organized, 
inspired, and brought forth. Not only so, but they are 
also made to continually advance along the onward 
way; yea, all improvement is accomplished and guaran- 
teed by the reciprocal action, or warlike contention, of 
opposite forces and immutable powers. 



204 MORNING LECTURES. 

Let me illustrate. Justice is recognized by a 
perfect balance — a state of exact equilibrium. Place a 
stick across your finger. There is a point in that stick 
from which both ends will be precisely alike — each will 
weigh the same — and, as a consequence, the stick will 
rest exactly in balance, without the least motion. If 
the universe were constructed 'upon that principle, all 
throbbing hearts and the infinite powers would cease to 
move; not a heart would beat; not a brain would 
think, not a tide flow, not a bird sing, not a tree would 
grow, but inertia and death would be universal. And 
yet the universe is constructed on Justice. But one 
end of the stick must weigh more than the other in order 
to produce motion. Then comes in a governing power 
to restore the lost balance ; by the act of balancing it, 
the power loads the opposite end, and thus is established 
the principle of reciprocation. The weight, (by 
changing from point to point,) produces every descrip- 
tion of motion. So the planets revolve about the sun. 
So also your blood flows from heart to brain, from 
brain to feet and hands, and back again to its central 
sources. All this illustrates the spirit of contention. 
This is what I mean by " the universality of war."' 

Eight is the source of true might. An organ is not 
the cause of motion. The heart does not make the 
blood flow ; it is rather a regulating and modifying 
organ — chairman of the movement. Neither do the 
organs of the brain cause the blood to flow. The brain 
is not the primal source of its energies. The cerebral 
organization cannot keep itself in motion. It continu- 
ally inhales and exhales ; always giving off an equiva- 
lent to what it may have taken in; always expelling 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AND SPIRIT. 205 

the body of that which has been duly appropriated ; the 
magnetic and material weights are thus constantly 
changing from one pole of the cerebral battery to the 
other. The perpetual change is perpetual motion. This 
ceaseless motion produces refinement ; this refinement 
insures advancement ; and all true advancement is 
progress. Whatever is refined is expanded ; whatever 
is expanded occupies a larger sphere than it did a lew 
minutes before ; and whatever is refined and expanded 
is more powerful, because it covers a larger radius in 
space, and permeates and inspires a larger mass of gross 
matter. 

Now do you suppose that God is a person, confined 
like a fountain of energy,* at the very center of things? 
Theology taught an astronomer to say that God sent 
all these orbs that sparkle through the infinitude ; that 
they were projected, as balls from the cannon's mouth, 
out of his formative powers. No man or woman, who 
thinks truly, would ever attribute such works to an 
Infinite Spirit. An Infinite Spirit must be diffused through 
infinite space; and is therefore omnipresent in matter, 
and infinitely and universally powerful. Confinement, 
to the limits of personality, would limit its presence 
and power. In the infinite depths of the visible uni- 
versal whole you will find the beautiful Love-Fountain, 
and the Fountain of Wisdom, which are to our spirits 
both " Mother 55 and " Father" — both Nature and 
God — sweet, pure, perfect, beautiful — living with 
celestial and unchangeable harmony through all the 
life of things. 

What most satisfies your best affections ? It is that 
holy experience by which you touch and feel the warm 



206 MORNING LECTURES. 

love of Deity. Where can you find that love, if not in 
the divine life of living things? Can you find it in 
dead books, or. in lifeless sentences ? Is it possible for 
bookmakers, down at the Bible House, to turn out that 
which will communicate God's love to your mind by 
actual impartation. Reason tells you that it is not pos- 
sible. True, a spiritually-inspired sentence may arouse 
your slumbering thoughts to high action ; but if there 
be an impartation of life to your soul, it is from the 
life of things — from some hovering angel, or from some 
beautiful principle of truth that is both within and 
without. I admit the conviction that beautiful sen- 
tences, contained in the Bibles of the world, do, now 
and then, rouse dormant natures to thought and medi- 
tation, and to progress ; but I deny that anything within 
these printed words is the cause of that progress, medi- 
tation, and growth ; for all life proceeds from the living, 
breathing, palpitating Father and Mother, who are 
within all immutable laws and within all impersonal 
principles. It is the ideal and heavenly presence of 
their love and wisdom, which awakens and rouses, to a 
blooming grandeur and holy meditation, the inmost of 
your deepest intuitions ; for, under such influence, you 
feel as though you had just heard the "voice of God" 
in the " cool of the day," while you were silently walk- 
ing to and fro in the garden of thought. 

War is the outward method by which laws, princi- 
ples, and ideas work. (1.) Blood is animal; (2.) brain 
is thoughtful; (3.) spirit is heavenly. Heavenly wars? 
Yes. Every man's spirit is a soldier. Brain wars too ? 
Yes. Plenty of illustrations in the world's intellectual 
and political history. And also blood wars? Cer- 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AND SPIRIT. 207 

tainly, all beneath brain wars on that principle. I said 
the brain does not circulate the blood ; neither does 
the heart; but that the heart is a regulator, a sort of 
chairman, and that the brain is conductor or superin- 
tendent of the movement. What, then, is the blood I 
And how is it moved ? It is circulated by the laws and 
perpetually-broken equilibriums of reciprocal powers. 
The venous blood is negative ; the arterial blood posi- 
tive. Each overbalances the other by turns. How so ? 
By the respirational processes, and also t*y the magnetic 
and electric actions, through the breathings of the 
lungs and skin. All parts of a living body are inhaling 
and exhaling, every instant of time, like summer flowers 
that receive golden life and give off the spirit of fra- 
grance. The blood contains the power of its own 
motion. Human life ceases when the blood is poured 
out and lost, or when the vitality has been pumped out 
of the blood by the magnetic powers of the brain, which 
keeps drawing and pumping in order that its own forces 
may be renewed and existence guaranteed. A physio- 
logically well-balanced man or woman is one whose 
blood flows independently of either brain or heart; that 
is to say, the circulation is from the intrinsic motive- 
energy of the blood itself. 

Blood wars, consequently, are inherent. Who taught 
the lion and the bear to go out and slay for their food 
and subsistence ? Not a teacher of war have they ever 
had, save the inherent voice of blood. It is constitu- 
tional. " What do you mean by that V I mean that 
the animal is acting in accordance with a Divine 
" idea" (design) expressing itself irrepressibly and 
unconsciously through the throbbing blood. 



208 MORNING LECTURES. 

Blood wars are Gehenna — full of fire and destruc- 
tion. Hades is the middle world, and the liver is the 
dark repository or grave-yard of the debris of the 
victims of war in the chemistry of life. In like manner 
the whole organic world is a burying-ground or reposi- 
tory, a hepatical-hades, for the victims of progressive 
laws, which, in the animal world, as in man, operate 
through the life of the blood. 

All mankind inherit animal blood. We received it 
from our predecessors in the order of organization. No 
theology, no science, no philosophy can refute the doc- 
trine of the rudimental origin of human beings. I 
speak not of man's spirit, but of his material organiza- 
tion. Love and wisdom, in man and woman, came not 
from the lower world. But this organic machinery, 
which we name the physical body, and this blood which 
flows through its parts, and these elemental forces which 
constitute the body and final covering of the spirit, all 
these came out of the reservoir of matter and principles 
which preceded mankind in the growth of the universe. 
Blood wars are described by the burning words of Dante, 
who saw, in " The Inferno" of his thought, the wars of 
demons, and now and then an " angel of light' 5 flitting 
through the darkened sky. Pollock and Milton, and 
indeed many other poets, who were gifted with powers 
adapted to conceiving and giving embodiment to ideas, 
have described wars in the lower world. Poets, unhap- 
pily, have located these conflicts to suit the Christians, 
in their fabled hell which God is supposed to have 
made from the foundations of the world. Poetry and 
theology will, in their details and geography, have no 
value in the grand analysis which is to come. We 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AND SPIRIT. 209 

accept only the inward flow of meaning'. It is this : 
Poets have set to words and to music the actual ;; war" 
which originates from the combative forces that are 
accumulated and treasured up in the blood. 

Next, we come to consider the conflicts of Brain. 
These wars are based on differences of organization. 
There is no spirituality, no moral 'restraint, in brain 
wars. Intellect does not conciliate. The thinking 
powers are animated mostly by policies, convictions, 
ways and means, and expedients. They resolve upon 
the execution of their purposes. In this respect each 
man's brain is alike. Hence the origin of brain wars. 
It is thinking- force against thinking- force. Men cipher 
out problems through their intellectual organs, and 
each sets all his forces to work to accomplish results 
most congenial to his own interests. How many govern- 
ments have gone to war upon the principle of brain — 
thinking that it would be best. 

All the kings and emperors, all tyrants and poten- 
tates, go to war from the dictates of the brain. These 
are the wars of aggrandizement, wars for more power, 
wars for the possession of larger territories, wars for 
the acquisition of greater resources of wealth, wars for 
the establishment of kingdoms already possessed, wars 
for the accumulation of wider privileges on sea and 
land. These brain-wars are planned and premeditated 
with as much indifference to the claims of humanity as 
one would cipher out a sum on a slate. 

Spirit is not heard from in the jargon of such 
wars. It is very still — in the depths of the mind ; 
locked up, imbedded, as life sometimes is in the germs 
of trees. The wars of the spirit — how different ! Such 



210 MORNING LECTURES. 

wars never occur except where Right is in jeopardy. 
Men of blood and men of brain avail themselves of all 
enginery, powers, and forces, that are known to be most 
destructive. But the Spirit, on the other hand, goes to 
war from its highest standard; to penetrate the dark- 
ness of ignorance and error, and to shine lovingly into 
and throifgh the darkness that rejects it ; to persevere 
in warring its way through, until it reaches the " point 
of light" in the world, or in the kindred spirit of a 
brother man. The moment the heart of love is touched 
by the penetration of spirit, like the rod that smote the 
rock, the waters of truth and affection flow, reconcilia- 
tion takes place, and the lion and the lamb lie down 
together. 

A war in the spirit is "a war in heaven" — per- 
vading and penetrating, impressing and uplifting, chas- 
tening and purifying, harmonizing and rendering 
universally happy the discordant forces and conflicting 
elements which come up to dwell with Spirit from the 
kingdoms of the under world. 

The man who fights "the good fight" ^from his 
Spirit, is infinitely more of a power than he who pro- 
ceeds to battle from the forces of his brain and blood. 
Neither man nor animal fights from blood except when 
its fires arrive at the point of a Gehennal-conflagration. 
The blow is struck somewhat as the ball leaps from the 
cannon's mouth— from an inherent, propulsive, explo- 
sive energy that cannot be repressed. Blood goes for 
the instantaneous destruction of its antagonist. It takes 
no thought; therefore it is frequently forgiven in our 
courts of Justice. Unpremeditated murder, the destruc- 
tion of life in the heat (hell) of passion, (Gehenna,) is 
not as punishable as is murder of the calculating brain. 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AND SPIRIT. 211 

This form of Justice is intuition coming up through 
drunken judges ; it is the spirit of truth in man reach- 
ing out clumsily, yet really, after justice, love and 
right. 

The effect of the war of the Spirit upon the lower 
world is marked and lasting. The mythological state- 
ment is that Diana, by her long, eternal kiss of love, 
woke the dead Endymion " to life/' Thus these spirit- 
wars in man's highest powers lift out of the " lowest 
darkness" the impulses of blood and other imps of self- 
ishness. As lilies of purest celestial whiteness grow in 
ponds, and bloom in their loveliness from the depths of 
corrupt marshes, so from Hadean and Gehennal regions 
in mankind — from the regions of the liver, the blood, 
and the brain, which are fed and filled from the dark- 
ness and corruptions of the physical world — out of all 
these come results which will ultimately bring happi- 
ness, and ornament, and beauty, and progress, and that 
sublime courage which is the hope of the world. The 
war of the Spirit may be represented and characterized 
by the picture of Raphael. He has beautifully and 
powerfully painted St. Margaret standing with her foot 
on "the great dragon." St. Margaret may be called 
" the Spirit" conquering the impulses and abolishing 
the wars of Blood and Brain. The human world is 
constituted of races somewhat as ethnologists have 
classified them. Commence at the top and count down, 
thus: Caucasian, Mongolian, African, Indian and 
Malayan. These five races may be subdivided, or they 
may be made more homogeneous and brought much 
nearer together. They would then literally represent 
Blood, Brain, Spirit. The Caucasian race (which, 
according to mythology, came from that beautiful 



212 MOUSING LECTURES. 

mount from which the name is derived,) may be called 
the race of Spirit. Their greatest wars will be wars of 
spirit — the wars of Thought, of Ideas, of Principles — 
against the darkness of ignorance and error, against 
the brain and its calculating selfishness, against the 
blood and. its passion-fed fires and gehennal impulses. 
The true, forthcoming Caucasians will be conquerors ; 
they will be masters of the races of the human world. N 
The Mongolians are not conquerors ; the Africans are 
not ; the Indians are not, but are, in fact, passing away. 

Now the blood-races are beneath, in Gehenna ; the 
brain-races afe transitional, in Hades * the spirit-race, 
the Heavenly-family, is. to come. Promises of the 
spirit-race have always dwelt among men. The race 
of brain will flower out and become spiritual inspira- 
tion, seeking after principles and ideas, seeking after 
God, liberty, fraternity, harmony. Members of the 
Spirit-race believe that all lower wars will be abol- 
ished ; that all men will be converted at last to the 
beautiful ways of good and truth ; that the might of the 
lower world will be directed by the whole world's 
Right ! 

The Spirit-republic, unhappily, is not yet born. 
Its faintest foregleams are just now visible in the 
transitional republicanism of the land. Present signs 
presage the erectioji of that glorious future temple of 
truth and Brotherhood which will be carpeted with the 
beautiful designs of the Infinite mind — designs that 
will be revealed plainly to man's understanding by a full ■ 
exposure of the world's life to the fires of blood-wars 
and brain-wars, which will cease only when the harmo- 
nial era is fully unfolded. 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 



" The Truth only needs to be for once spoke out, 
And there's such music in her, such strange rhythm, 
As makes men's memories her joyous slaves, 
And cling around the soul, as the sky clings 
Round the mute earth, forever beautiful." 

Nature, left to herself, expresses outwardly what is 
inmost. Her truest and largest expression is two-fold 
— male and female — a divine revelation from the 
central golden fountains of the universe. It is a com- 
mon intuition that the universe is sexual. All human 
tongues, in one form of speech or another, name and 
address the different objects in Nature as though they 
were sexual. Full-grown men, like little boys, when 
speaking of a steamboat, say — "There she comes," or 
" How beautifully she sails \" Of the sun, " He shines." 
Of an iron-bodied and fire-heated locomotive the friend- 
ly engineer will very tenderly say, " She is the best 
machine on the road." Throughout the world you will ob- 
serve the same instinctive, unconscious acknowledgment 
of this universal truth. Not an intelligent man on the 
farm or in the garden but what is obliged to recognize 
these dual principles — male and female — in the swaying 
vine as in the animal stock, in the fruiting tree as in 
the blooming flower. Everything that grows, mani- 



214 MORNING LECTURES. 

fests the internal and immutable principles of husband 
and wife, or father and mother. Enshrined in the 
golden fountains of the spiritual universe, is the central 
law which expands throughout infinitude, and expresses 
itself through an infinite variety of apparently opposite, 
but really united, principles of action, organization, and 
distribution. 

This subject comes challenging your reverent atten- 
tion this bright morning. Mankind do not naturally 
or intuitively associate and combine " God" and " Na- 
ture" as though they were one under different forms of 
expression. I know that it is possible to reason oneself 
into a proposition admitting the total identity and 
unity of the two ; so much so, indeed, that the absolute 
individuality of each may cease for a time to occupy any 
place in one's thoughts. But the moment you cease to 
think on the question of the difference between " God" 
and "Nature," or when you settle down into your 
normal consciousness, then Intuition from its deep 
sources declares fully of an eternal difference. Un- 
consciously, or rather without intellectual conscious- 
ness, you will allude to God, or to that mental something 
which represents the Divine source, as a masculine 
Energy, and then, as unconsciously and unthinkingly, 
you will speak of "Nature" as a feminine Fountain of 
love, beauty, and tenderness. It is natural, therefore, 
to feel and speak of NATURE'as "Mother and of God 
as " Father." The human spirit left to itself, unre- 
strained and unwarped by educational impediments, 
instinctively adopts this form of expression. 

Here it becomes again necessary to say that I mean 
by the word Nature, something different from the phy- 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 215 

sical constitution of things. The term is often used to 
signify merely the phenomenal universe — the objective 
world or system of worlds. I have often used the word 
in that commonly received sense. When so used, it 
should always be written without the capital N — 
simply, nature, meaning the objective sphere or the 
nature of. things. When used in an interior spiritual 
sense, it should invariably be written with the capital 
N not only, but the whole word might appear in capi- 
tals, because it assumes a new and far loftier situation 
in the spiritual order of thought. Vastly more interior 
sentiments and infinitely higher reflections are awakened 
and symbolized and expressed by this use of the term. 
" Nature/' in the interior sense, is the love-center of 
all Existences — the mother-heart of which " God" is 
the father-head or positive principle. Nature is the 
center of which God is the surrounding sphere of order 
and organization. 

Nature means, therefore, the internal love-source 
of all being. The common dictionary signification 
makes the word mean the fixed order of things. But, 
in the interior, the word will be found to signify and 
express the fountain-heart of the life of things. The 
physical universe — the objective sphere of matter — is 
not Nature. The following proposition is more truth-, 
ful and philosophical: The phenomenal universe is a 
physical organization, and the spiritual universe is a 
spiritual organization; and the two are expressions of 
the male and female principles, which iire interior and 
invisible, and are not easily perceived nor comprehended 
by the external mind of sensuous thinkers. Nature, the 
infinite heart, and God, the positive sphere, like soul 



216 MORNING LECTURES. 

and brain married indissolubly, propagate both the 
physical and spiritual universe, which is interrelated to 
summer-spheres beyond all comprehension. Objects in 
the physical worlds, and human beings, including the 
higher grades of intelligences, are children born from 
that beautiful, infinite, central marriage of the " Father" 
and " Mother," the union of the Eternal heart with the 
Eternal head — the conjunction of Love and Wisdom — 
the positive and the negative in unchangeable conjugial 
harmony, giving rise to all that is, and to all that will 
ever be. As you behold in your children your propensities 
and your tendencies, your attributes and habits, your 
complexions, your hair and face, and the tone of your 
voice, so in the external workings of the physical 
. universe, you may behold the attributes, the elements, 
and the primal principles of the Infinite Father and 
Mother. 

When you come to truly investigate the composition 
of mind, you will find in thoughts that are evolved two 
varieties of sentiment, or two classes of truths, that are 
strictly in harmony with the desires of the intellect, 
which the intellect alone recognizes and harmonizes 
with as its own legitimate offspring. These purely 
intellectual truths gain your respect, and sometimes 
your admiration. And yet they are not warm and 
loving ; they are cold and calm, the keen-ey^d children 
of the reflective and perceptive faculties. They may be 
mathematically accurate, and geometrically perfect in 
all their forms and expressions ; yet they eliminate only 
that clear, calm, electric life which the moon gives off to 
artists, and to the photographers, who too soon dis- 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 217 

cover the absence of another principle by which alone 
chemical action can occur. 

Investigate further into the mind, and you will discover 
another class of truths which are nearer your affections, 
which cling like loving children around your heart and 
sympathies. Do they not belong to more interior parts 
of the mind ? They are sequestered and deeply vailed. 
They are inexpressible and indefinite. They float and 
sail like beautiful birds through the mind. They come 
together, they perch and sing for a moment, then 
depart for months. Other truths rest within ; they 
dwell in the heart, and are a part of it. We call these 
always-present truths the tendencies of the mind, or the 
instincts of the heart, which will express themselves in 
the various sentiments, actions, and relations of indi- 
vidual life. 

There is yet another class of truths which seem to 
have been born since we were born, that are not neces- 
sarily a part of us, that come in and go out in conse- 
quence of contact with other minds. These correlative 
or transmitted truths well up in us during the course of 
our ordinary development; while those truths which 
were born with us, which are parts of the spirit itself, 
cause us to love flowers and music, poetry and beauty, 
affection and wisdom, Nature and God. They are the 
principles which should systematize the external action of 
men — should regulate and govern mankind during all 
their lives. 

Nature gets the start of the judgment, forestalls all 
discipline, and anticipates the highest experience. Edu- 
cation may greatly modify the inherited impulse and 
action of temperaments, yet the cure is not radical ; for 

10 



218 MORNING LECTURES. 

when the temperaments have an opportunity to declare 
themselves, they will utterly centrii'ugate all educational 
restrictions, and will express themselves freely, and 
that too from their own resources of instincts and ten- 
dencies. Such natures are called " incorrigible" by 
teachers in the different schools. They do not long 
submit to be ruled and disciplined by the methods of 
the schoolmen. There are multitudes of both men and 
women, of girls and boys, who are thus untrainable and 
unsusceptible ; they are not necessarily " wild," but 
have, from the start of life, adopted their own deter- 
mined instincts and tendencies, and are unhappy, even 
miserable, unless they are left undisturbed to live the 
life of congenial proclivities. 

Other natures, perhaps born of the same parents, 
are plastic and easily molded. Such minds are more 
conscious of two different classes of truths than are 
either of the others. They can realize that there are 
truths which come into the mind from without ; and yet 
other truths which come up from within, as water 
springs from the earth. Before these truths came you 
were like sealed fountains, waiting in fullness to flow. 
Every soul waits for some magic power to break down 
the embankments between the spirit and its external 
expression. That awakening power is remembered 
pleasurably through all your life as the captain of your 
exodus, when the whole current of life's inner being 
was turned into the celestial channel of a new expe- 
rience. How many there are who seem, even to them- 
selves, to be treasurers of great innate powers — waiting 
for some person, influence, or event, to give them -the 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 219 

golden key with which to unlock their never-fully- 
expressed existence. 

These natures are waiting for the approach of those 
male and female principles. They are waiting for the 
approach of the masculine truth, or for the coming of 
this feminine truth, and they are alone until the right 
truth arrives. The spirit is in its bachelorhood, or in 
its maidenhood; it is waiting for the bridegroom, or 
for the bride. 

It is the presence of male and female truths in the v /r 
soul, their nuptial relation, the joining and interrela- 
. tionship of what before had not met, and which, when 
joined, will never be sundered. In Solomon's Songs, (so 
many of them seem unfit for human reading,) if your 
eyes be deep-sighted enough, you may go beneath the 
verbiage, and find that by the " maiden" is represented 
the female-principle in religion — the mother-soul, the 
wife-nature, the uumarried, a beautiful virgin going 
forth and seeking her mate. What is Judaism but a 
marriage of Egyptian philosophy with the religion of 
the Israelites ? The children of Israel were spiritual- 
ists in bondage in Egypt. The Egyptians were a people 
learned in science, in the objective facts and realities of 
the world — master Masons ; were vast and strong and 
ponderous in their thoughts and in many of their deeds, 
and thus they displayed the principle of masculinity. 
The Israelites furnished the female principle, and the 
marriage of those two made Judaism. There is no 
other way of accounting for the coming of that offspring. 
It was born legitimately. Judaism, however, was a 
masculine element. It was not a fine order of cultured 
and reverent affection for truth. It was objective, 



220 MORNING LECTURES. 

ceremonial, full of law. It had not its mate. Judaism 
was therefore a great, strong, religious giant, holding 
fast to Egyptian laws. It was obliged to meet its mate 
— the feminine element — before progeny could come ; a 
true marriage was necessary before something better, 
more adapted to future generations, could be born. 
Hence the feminine part of the Grecian element, repre- 
sented by the Platonic philosophy, had to be blended 
with Judaism before the world could receive what is 
called Christianity. # 

It is the sheerest folly to say that Christianity began 
with Jesus. You might as well say that music began 
- with Mozart, or that the principle of independent con- 
science began with Luther, as to say that Christianity 
began .with a person. Christianity is the legitimate 
child of the marriage of the female Greek principle 
with the masculine Judaic principle. Coming, from such 
parents, it inherits traits and truths from both of them, 
does it not ? You who are acquainted with Christianity 
find the characteristics and features of both parents rep- 
resented in the child, do you not? Do you not see 
Platonic philosophy and religion and theology in 
Christianity ? What is the Gospel of John but a 
Platonic epistle? Is it not original Platonism from 
first to last ? The most beautiful writing in the New 
Testament is the beautiful Gospel of John, and that 
Gospel is almost a perfect embodiment of the spiritual 
teachings of Plato. You read thu&: " In the beginning- 
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
Word was God/' (John I, Verse 13.) And again: 
u The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, full 
of grace and truth." Platonism, you recollect, teaches 



TRUTHS. MALE AND FEMALE. 221 

the same doctrine; that things are the forms of pre- 
existent spiritual patterns or ideas, in other language, 
things are the incarnations of archetypal thoughts that 
were God, or were with God in the spiritual universe. 
Saint John and Saint Plato both taught that spiritual 
types or ideals were prepared beiore creation, waiting 
for embodiment ; and that when the time arrived for 
expression, or " creation/' (as some writers term it,) 
then expression came. Wherefore we read in the Tes- 
tament this Platonism : ;i The Word became flesh and 
dwelt among men." To this conclusion you arrive : 
What you find that is superior in theology and ethics 
in the Xew Testament, is but an offspring of the mar- 
riage of the Grecian female philosophy with the mascu- 
line element of Judaism. In the theology and ethics of 
Christendom, we find representative traits and impres- 
sive propensities of its father and mother. In examining 
Christianity you will discover the distinguishing cha- 
racteristics of the father and mother, both parents and 
grandparents ; the feminine Greek philosophy and the 
Judaic masculine element — the latter an offspring of 
the spiritualism of the Israelites in marriage relation 
with the masculine science of the Egyptians. 

In Christianity, however, we recognize also a mas- 
culine element which required new companionship, and 
went abroad seeking its true bride. It found no com- 
panionship in Greece. Plato was not the founder of 
a masculine philosophy — Socrates was not. But Aris- 
totle, and those of his school, were founders and 
champions of the masculine in Greek philosophy. Many 
of them taught and represented perfectly, long before 
the element went out to seek its companion, the full 



222 MORNING LECTURES. 

development of the male principle in the spiritual life 
of the world. 

It was this masculine element, which, going into 
Rome, formed a marriage relation with the Roman 
feminine principle ; which was exhibited as an internal 
fondness for whatsoever was at once decidedly beautiful 
and strictly useful. A union of the Roman principle 
with the Greek principle, in this intimate relation of 
marriage, introduced Christianity to all Europe. With- 
out such marriage, Christianity could not have lived 
through the medieval age and obtained an expression 
in the Western world. The feminine in Platoism and 
in Christism, blended with the masculine in Judaism 
and in Greek philosophy, brought out the latent attri- 
butes of the Roman mind. The Roman mind was 
strictly and perfectly pledged to the development of 
Use and Power. Utilism, strong political and legal 
institutions, and energetic devotion to what was deemed 
the most beautiful and lasting. The Roman did not 
possess a philosophic miud. His was not an artistic, 
poetic, or musical mind. Greece alone furnished the 
feminine principles of which Art, Poetry, and Music 
are expressions to mankind's five senses. In the Roman 
mind you find the Greek expressions cropping out, 
because in the offspring you always behold more or less 
of the characteristics and ruling propensities of the pro- 
genitors. Therefore in Rome you find the Art and 
Science, some of the Philosophy, a good deal of the 
Music, a little of the Poetry, and a very large propor- 
tion of the Drama, Tragedy and Comedy of ancient 
Greece, and also of the Arabian and Persian world. 
Children always receive from their parents, by physio- 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 223 

logical .and psychological inheritance, and the same is 
true of nations, races, ages, and institutions. 

Now when Rome arrived at the climax of her 
power she was substantially a rich giantess and the 
supreme head of the earth's law-makers. In the latter 
respect Rome was masculine. It eventually became 
necessary for this element to seek a new relation. That 
new relation was easily found in more Western Europe. 
The marriage resulted in the large and beautiful family 
of Literature and Art and Science and Music and 
Poetry, and resulted also in all the various forms of 
the State and Church, of Law and Democracy, of Phi- 
losophy and Progress, and in the public spirited move- 
ments of the present age. The masculine and feminine 
principles — the whole family of them — seemed to have 
culminated and gathered for their first and most grand 
expression in England and in France. The conjugal 
blending of those opposite principles was the gathering 
of long-estranged elements into a happy group to dwell 
for a time together in peace. It was like the gathering 
of the scattered and discordant tribes of Judea. When 
they should be gathered together, there was to be great 
rejoicing, for the foundation of the New Jerusalem 
would soon be laid. (So says the pleasant dream.) But 
the New Jerusalem was really nothing but the meeting 
of those long-wandering male and female principles— 
the children and grandchildren and the great-grand- 
children — the aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, 
and cousins near and distant — the various feminine and 
masculine principles past and present which assembled 
like a Congress in the age of Charlemagne. Then 
they found their finest and sweetest expression; but 



224 MORNING LECTURES. 

how very crude, how very barbarian, how exceedingly 
far beneath what is to-day seen and known of them ! 

Grave and slow old England, when many of these 
principles were gathered in her heart, openly exhibited 
a masculine development. The blending of the mascu- 
line Roman principles with the feminine principles of the 
age of Charlemagne, gave the purest and clearest 
development of Science through the mind of Bacon. 
The German inductive philosophy came also ; and this, 
unlike the English Science, was truly and healthfully 
feminine. 

Anything which engerms and inspires a love of truth 
in the soul, is feminine. Science, which insists upon 
facts and accuracy in things, is invariably masculine. 
The spiritual effect of Bacon's philosophy is masculine, 
or inductive ; but the truly German philosophy is femi- 
nine, or deductive. Phileo means to love, and sophia 
means wisdom. Hence the term " Philosophy," literally 
signifying the love of wisdom. Love signifies the seat 
or heart of the affections ; the life-principles and imper- 
sonal ideas of the inmost spirit. When the heart, 
therefore, goes out toward a truth, it is a bride going 
out to meet the bridegroom. The offspring of the 
Baconian philosophy are all great healthy boys — that 
is, strong, vigorous, progressive, irrepressible Sciences 
— the positive methods which that school of philosophy 
has developed throughout civilization. 

What comes next ? When a perfect marriage takes 
place between these outer sciences and a love of truth, 
the world is soon blest with young saviors. Such is the 
origin of the Daguerrean and Photographic arts, and of 
every new invention for human good, each being duly 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 225 

baptized and placed upon record, just as a new babe 
is added to the family and a new hand is made for 
industry. 

A truth goes out from one mind and obtains a hos- 
pitable recognition in another mind: only an intellectual 
apprehension and entertainment. But there is also 
such a fact as a spiritual love of truth. No mind can 
develop anything good and beautiful unless he first feels 
in his deep soul a love for whatsoever is good and beauti- 
ful. First, he must have the feminine inspiration and 
aspiration for and toward truth : and next, the mascu- 
line intellectual apprehension of the scientific details by 
which that truth can alone receive its finest and highest 
expression. Thus, Daguerre went to work with the 
love of heart, which is the bride of truth, and also with 
the Baconian philosophy, which is the bridegroom, or 
form of truth, and the result was the development of a 
new art. When he received into his mind the mascu- 
line apprehension of those exact facts in chemistry con- 
cerning the action of light, and when he united with 
that apprehension the love of the good, the true and the 
beautiful, the next event was a marriage in his being, 
which in due course of time unfolded that wonderful 
art'by which the sun is made everybody's artist. 

Wherever mankind are, there you will observe this 
blending of the bridegroom and the bride. In the 
smallest, least, and most unimportant, as in the grand- 
est, most essential, and magnificent,, it is clearly and 
truly like the marriage of the beautiful maiden with 
her own beloved mate. It is indorsed by Nature, our 
spirit Mother, and by her eternal companion, our spirit 
Father ; and no union can be more sacred and pro- 
10* 



226 MORNING LECTURES. 

ductive of human progress and happiness. The issues 
of such marriages are legitimate — beautiful offspring 
called " society/ 5 "education," "art," "poetry," "mu- 
sic," science," " philosophy," "religion," and "civiliza- 
tion," and giving " hope" and " courage" and embellish- 
ment to the great temple of human " liberty" and " pro- 
gress" — these are the darling offspring, the legitimate 
progeny, of the perfect marriages of principles of male 
and female truths in the human mind. 

You know, by your own experience, that you have 
intellectual conceptions of truths which bear no fruit — 
truths that are sterile and barren of children. Do 
you not also think of friends and acquaintances, who 
apprehend high truths and principles as clearly as you, 
and yet whose lives and characters have never been 
improved and beautified by those truths? Their lives 
and homes have never been modified or softened or 
sweetened by that which in you has been a perpetual 
source of great strength and spiritual fertility. The 
secret is: The unchanged character has only had in his 
mind the masculine element of the truth — merely an 
intellectual apprehension of the truth, and of course it 
does not bear fruitful results in him. Perhaps in your 
own nature you have a beautiful and holy truth that 
has not improved and strengthened you. Perhaps you 
do not feel invigorated by your truth for any great 
work, either in private or public life. You may have a 
clear, sweet, reverent, religious devotion to some par- 
ticular beautiful truth, which has been alternately nest- 
ling and slumbering in your bosom for years, but it has 
never imparted to you a ray of strength — never given 
life and light enough to enable you to carry out a 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 227 

millionth part of its dictation and positive requirements. 
What can be the cause and the reason? Because, per- 
haps, instead of a male, you may have a feminine truth, 
which may never have met with its masculine counter- 
part or principle. If there be no marriage there can 
be no parentage or results. Suppose now that you 
should hear some preacher, politician, orator, or some 
man or woman, who said "just the right thing" — just 
what you had been " longing'' to have said, but knew 
not before exactly what it was you so longingly wanted, 
and which you were never able to give a tangible 
expression. It may be but a single word in the whole 
discourse, but that " word" struck your pent up and 
barren soul as Moses' rod struck the rock, and forth- 
with the deep fountains of your interior life are unsealed, 
and they send forth their golden spray into the great 
world about you. You are spiritually, morally strong. 
You go out into the world and you return to your 
family with a new life and a new comprehension. The 
explanation is, that the opposite element has entered 
your spirit. The bridegroom has sought and found his 
bride, or the reverse has transpired, and marriage was 
perfect and immediate. You rise strengthened, built 
up anew, and are, as it were, " born again ;" the light 
of new skies is showered upon you, and your awakened 
mind is all starry and begemmed with new and beauti- 
ful conceptions of the Divine. Persons susceptible to high 
religious influences, know the reality of these expe- 
riences. You may read the best books, you may attend 
the highest order of literary lectures, you may go to 
the most living churches for years; but unless the 
" right thing is said," and said in " the right way" to 



228 MORNING LECTURES. 

your inmost, you will still be waiting and longing. 
The bride will be waiting for her mate, or the mascu- 
line for his feminine companion, within the temple 
of life. 

I used to think, uncharitably and unphilosophically, 
that men were very blameworthy for all deviations from 
what is deemed just and right. I have not wholly arrived 
at that conscienceless and comfortable point where 
" whatever is, is right;" but I do most clearly see that 
men are not as culpable as they are supposed to be by 
the religious creeds of the world. Men and women 
wait for the advent of the master — the masculine and 
the feminine principles — the interior union of love and 
wisdom in the spirit. 

See, for example, how in these days America waits 
for champions to lead her armies to battle. Men had # 
military principles and tactics taught to them at West 
Point; the masculine science of planning and fighting 
great battles. They knew, in theory, how to march 
and countermarch, to plot and counterplot; they under- 
stood commanding, and the management of the sword 
and musket. They understood also, by theory and 
illustration, all the pharaphernalia of an army in its 
march to the field of battle. But all this learning was 
the masculine element ; it amounted to nothing for the 
world's progress. The West Point Cadets, when in the 
city of New York, appeared like the other people, except 
in the matter of their uniform. But the day and the 
hour arrived for some of these men to receive the femi- 
nine principle. What was it ? It was the love of an 
unchangeable principle ; the love of Liberty for all the 
inhabitants of this continent. When this love entered 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 229 

into the soul of these men a marriage was celebrated 
through all their faculties, and instead of being mere 
uniformed officers, they rose to manhood, and the faith- 
ful among them equaled the might of a thousand men. 
Some of the military leaders wait for opportunities. 
They will yet show you grand and valorous general- 
ship; they hesitate, waiting for the expression of the 
interior marriage that has not yet occurred. Others 
again go into the field mechanically ; are nothing but 
military men, with no love for any ennobling principle, 
having never felt the marriage of the principles of Lib- 
erty and Justice with the principles of military science. 
Now take spiritual truths. In our motto you read, 
"Fair truth! for thee alone we seek," &c. Does that 
sound as though you were addressing a masculine prin- 
ciple ? A great many men may think they ought to be 
so addressed, but you know that it would be an inap- 
propriate use of language. " Fair truth I" Did the poet 
not see truth to be a female — the woman principle ? 
William Cullen Bryant, in his well-known lines, says: 

" Truth crushed to earth will rise again ; 
The eternal years of God are hers.'" 

After recognizing thus the feminine of truth, he adds : 

" While Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 
And dies amid his worshipers." 

What man is there that will not shrink from the 
poet's testimony that error is masculine? We men, 
however, can read Genesis for consolation. We find 
there that woman was the cause of the world's universal 
damnation. She began the quarrel ! But, on the other 
hand, we are compelled to acknowledge that the Prince 



230 MORNING LECTURES. 

of Darkness was masculine. We have not heard that 
the Christian's devil was a woman. The great sphere 
of action, energy, force, is masculine ; and force, in its 
desperation and ambition to gain its point, falls, as did 
the Prince of Darkness, from these mountain-high ts of 
joys delectable down to the dreary depths of hopeless 
perdition. Such operations and overthrows occur 
throughout the world, in all history, and in much of pri- 
vate experience. 

The woman element, on the contrary, visits all these 
various recesses of darkness. Lovingly she 'goes to 
every part of the inhabitable globe as a missionary. 
Woman-life is a divine power; it is not force, which is 
masculine. Woma#, in essence, is love ; she is not 
intellect. Rarely does the principle of ambition gain 
highest expression in the woman mind. Force and 
ambition are masculine. If a woman's ambition is great, 
and if her love of admiration is also great, her conduct 
will correspond with such temporarily predominating 
masculine elements. But when the feminine principle 
in her spirit rouses, then she is affection, full of gentle 
dependence and of healing sympathy ; she is the inter- 
blending and transforming power of love, endowed 
richly with the missionary spirit. All women, when in 
their freedom, are missionaries in their homes and in 
all hearts. No mother can live without the inspiration 
of unselfish love for children. She goes as a missionary 
every time she visits her babe in the cradle ; thus, too, 
she visits the sick one in the chamber of sorrow and 
suffering. Man goes to lift up the body of the little 
one; to change its position in the bed ; to do something 
for the suffering. A woman goes, not only to do, but 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 231 

also to rescue and save and heal. The mother-nature 
comes to teach, to bind up the broken-hearted, and to 
pour over us all the streams of unselfish affection. The 
father-nature, the masculine element, holds up the physic- 
al relations, keeps the positive principles in action, and 
does the outward work of life. But the action of the 
mother-principle in the human mind is identical with 
the action of the masculine principle.* For if a stful loves 
a spiritual truth, it will give that soul, whether man or 
woman, warmth and zeal and enthusiastic fertility. If 
love does not exist in the spirit by the side of an intel- 
lectual apprehension of the truth, there is no growth, 
no improvement. But let the love of truth be blended 
with the intellect's admiration for and apprehension of 
it, and there very soon occurs " a new birth." The 
person henceforth not only is, but begins to be, and to 
do and to live from that divinely fertile center. Deeds, 
righteous and wholesome, are the darling progeny. 
Instead of bringing over-action and fatigue, such off- 
spring bathe the spirit with rest and happiness. 

A recent writer on the "Poetry, History, and Wis- 
dom of Words," unintentionally gives the substance of 
our philosophy in his solution of the origin of lan- 
guages : 

" The causes of that marvelous identity we call the 
English language, lie deep in the manifold influences 
[the conjugal relationships of the previously existing 
male and female principles] that have made the English 
Nation. The history of a language is measurable only 
in the terms of all the factors that have shaped a 
people's life. A nations history is the result of the 
double action [i. e., the sexual meeting and marrying] 



232 MORNING LECTURES. 

• of internal impulses and external events ; and language 
expresses the infusions from all these — subtiiely absorb- 
ing the ethnology of a nation, its geography, govern- 
ment, traditions, culture, faith. 

"The heart of our language is Anglo-Saxon. This 
is the spine on which the structure of our speech is 
hung. And yet had the Saxon been left to itself, it 
never co'uld have grown into the English tongue. It 
needed a new element. This it found in the ^Norman 
French introduced with that great political and social 
revolution, the Norman conquest, which was, no doubt, 
precisely the best thing that could have happened. And 
here we have to mention the deep debt we owe to that 
illustrious nation, Italy — which for so many centuries 
led the van of European civilization — in operating the 
renaissance of Greek and Latin language and thought. 
The breath of antique genius passed over the English 
mind like the air of spring, bursting and blossoming in 
luxuriant growths of thought and speech. Of those 
three grand factors -Saxon, French, and Classical — is 
our language made up. It is the mutual influence and 
action of these that form the warp and woof of our 
English speech. Not but that other elements are, in 
greater or smaller proportions, present, and weave their 
threads into the divine web ; but these are the main 
sources whence our language has enriched itself. 

" Of course the English language must take on new 
powers in America. And here we are favored by the 
genius of this grand and noble language, which, more 
than all others, lends itself, plastic and willing, to the 
molding power of new formative influences. [What 
new "formative" influences can there be but such as are 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 233 

rendered fertile and reproductive through the meeting 
and marriage of male and female principles ?] The 
future expansions of the English Language in America 
are already marked in the great lines of development 
this idiom shows. It is for us freely to follow the 
divine indications. The immense diversity of Tace, 
temperament, character — the copious streams of human- 
ity constantly flowing hither — must reappear in free, 
rich growths of speech. Over the transformations of a 
language the genius of a nation unconsciously presides — 
the issues of words represent issues in the national 
thought. And in the vernal seasons of a nation's life 
the formative energy puts forth verbal growths, opu- 
lent as flowers in spring. 55 

Science, I repeat, is masculine ; philosophy is femi- 
nine. Poetry, when genuine, is instinctive — feminine. 
It is the blending of outward and inward truths at the 
heart of the spirit. Poetry is spiritual ; Music is spirit- 
ual ; therefore both Poetry and Music are feminine. 
But the science of music, as of poetical composition, is 
mechanical, or masculine ; the great, strong, beautiful 
Apollo is a representative character in old mythology. 
Pandora's box was the source of innumerable evils. 
That is also mythology. But for woman's cause it 
should be remembered that it was not Pandora's heart, 
but her box, in which she was supposed to have accu- 
mulated evils and pestilences and disorders from 
masculine sources. 

Perhaps there is more truth than mythology in the 
story. Look at the -feminine principles in your mind. 
Unless they be married with something which is mas- 
culine — full of energy and full of action — they will often 



234 MORNING LECTURES. 

be sources of annoyance, pain, distress, and disaster to 
those about you. The most beautiful and affectionate 
principles in the human spirit, when not properly 
balanced with their mates and counterparts, will assault 
and break down the most beautiful relations subsisting 
in the social sphere between men and women, between 
women and women, and between men and men. We all 
need more balance. We are frequently imperfect. All 
men should have the power to modify and contain as well 
as the power to impart and express. 

Now the deductive principles, the method of the 
German, come fom the heart of thought. This method 
is always feminine ; reasoning from the center, out- 
wardly. Intuition is thus revealed ; it is the spirit of 
Nature ; the life of our Mother, going from her central 
fountains toward the surface. Intuition always starts 
from the germinal fountains of the immortal spirit ; it 
throws its showers of golden spray worldward — some- 
times in music, sometimes in poetry, sometimes in 
affectionate speech, sometimes in terse affirmations of 
great truths. Whatever way it expresses itself, it is still 
truly feminine. Truth is incessantly busy gathering 
to itself the means and objects of gratification. Science 
furnishes the parliamentary forms by which men may 
deal with each other in their relations to the truth. 

Women are not great inventors; neither are the wo- 
manly elements in any mind. The uncompanionated love 
of principles in a man's mind never invented anything. 
The love of truth is a source of inspiration. It is the 
intellectual sight and comprehension of truth, calm and 
cool, without enthusiasm, full of steady-eyed science? 
with an abiding sense that something like philosophy is 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 235 

at the bottom — from such a mind, whether male or 
female, inventions will come. The sources and causes 
of inventions are the same in individual minds of either 
sex. Men are quicker in the sphere of physical results. 
Xo womanly element, however, in either man or woman, 
can invent. Hence many men, like women, " die without 
issue. 3 ' The woman element will Inspire,' give life, love, 
affection, unchangeable devotion ; but the masculine 
element gives form, proportion, manifestation, embodi- 
ment. The woman-nature imparts inspiration to the 
intellectual faculties. The man-principles of mind 
think; they plan; they move; they bring in the details 
of heartless science; they open the way through swamps 
and mountains ; they dig the channels and prepare for 
the inflowing of the golden rivers of Paradise. The 
conjugal blending of male and female truths in the 
mind, is happiness; the healthy, beloved, beautiful off- 
spring of these married truths are deeds of use and 
beauty„ of philanthropy, fraternity, and progression. 

How can you put the doctrine of this lecture into 
daily practice ? I answer, easily. First find out which 
is the predominating sex in the state of your mind — 
whether there be more love of principles than an intel- 
lectual comprehension of them ; or, on the other hand, 
analyze yourself to find whether you have not more com- 
prehension of principles than love in your deep affections 
for them. Whichever way you find yourself unbalanced, 
proceed at once to adjust your life to the married law. 
For example, in America we find the sentiment of lib- 
erty — i. e., the love of the principle — fifty years in 
advance of the comprehension of the requirements of 
the principle. Few persons, therefore, are competent 



236 MORNING LECTURES. 

to define what Liberty is. In this respect the great 
mass of the world is dumb. But as to the sentiment — - 
the feminine love of liberty — they are over-glad to sing 
it and have it sung, and are willing to contribute their 
property, their lives and sacred honor to defend and 
establish it. And yet the intellectual conception of the 
requirements of the Idea has scarcely entered the heart 
of any American'. Because the masculine side of the 
'principle is not yet married to the soul's love of it. 

How can you be large, unsectarian, broad and phi- 
lanthropic until you have the conception of justice, as 
well as a profound love of it, so that you will give as- 
much freedom as you will take ? You will not be 
large-souled enough to open the doors of freedom to all 
human beings, until you see, and love to see, that the 
divine idea of Liberty positively calls upon you to be 
just and true to its requirements, " at whatever cost." 

And thus, also, with all the other truths. Take, 
for instance, the principle of marriage between the 
sexes. Love, unless regulated by wisdom, leads to dis- 
cordant expressions. The masculine element, the 
intellect, recognizes adaptations — the science of physio- 
logical and temperamental relations between men and 
women — and yet no relation known as marriage could 
exist without love. The protecting sphere of wisdom 
should be thrown around the conjugal love. That is 
what is meant by having truth dwelling with and in 
you, and your dwelling with and in the truth. How 
can you be " at home" unless you have a true concep- 
tion of what it is to be a man — a woman— bound together 
in true marriage? Unless these conceptions and these 
loves dwell with you every day, giving you largeness 



TRUTHS, MALE AXD FEMALE. 237 

of thought and warmth of soul, you will be restless and 
discordant with all about you. People who have none 
of these loves and conceptions in their homes, live like 
animals — full of strife, sensuality, profanity, evil- 
speaking, and destructiveness. 

The inmates of these fashionable city homes repel 
the doctrines of u woman's rights,'* 5 no matter how 
plausibly or reasonably presented, saying that they do 
not want more rights- than they now enjoy. They 
detest such controversies. Why ? Because they have 
not yet so much as the love of human rights born in 
them, much less the far-reaching idea, the intellectual 
conception and comprehension. A masculine truth in 
the mind is simply admired. It does not warm your 
affections ; it is not necessary to your present happiness. 
You may admire your own truth ; you may think it is 
superlatively good; the best thing; and yet you know 
it is only a part of your intellect. If it be a truth 
which you love also, it will always cause you to glow 
with gladness and work with joy. 

The conclusion of all is, that all truths in the mind 
need to be truly married. There can be no balance of 
character on any other basis. Any guardian angel, 
any passage of poetry, any strain of music, any scene in 
Nature, that will blend any two truths together and 
make them one in your spirit, is the high-priest of life 
to you. From that hour you will go happily forward 
in your proper sphere of labor, doing good, and exhibit- 
ing the pleasant ways of wisdom and righteousness to 
your fellow-men. The marriage of all principles in the 
mind will be known as a revelation to that mind of 
" the unity of truth."* 



FALSE AND TRUE EDUCATION. 



" A voice withiu us speaks the startling word, 
1 Man, thou shalt never die V " 

Education means eduction — drawing out from 
within — extracting that which is deposited. It is the 
work of quickening and bringing into active life dor- 
mant genius. True education is a process of incuba- 
tion — the internal is roused and evoked to a natural 
revelation. 

Long ago Dr. Channing asserted that culture was 
the guardian angel of civilization, and the Unitarian 
organization has ever since been largely pervaded by 
the beautiful spirit of his teachings, through which a 
refining influence has gone out upon the whole world. 
Universalists have proved useful educators in doing 
battle against the dismal error of eternal punishment. 
Orthodoxy has never recovered from the effects of 
their blows. 

We now stand upon the threshold of a new dispensa- 
tion — the most golden that ever rolled in from the sea 
of the centuries. We recognize the truth that the 
human mind is a soil, and that Education is a cultivation 
of that soil. Education brings out that which is hid- 
den, straightens the crooked, embellishes the unsightly, 
and equalizes the vigor and action of the faculties. 



FALSE AND TRUE EDUCATION. 239 

Mark how educational processes inaugurate a new- 
dispensation in the garden, on the prairie, in the Central 
Park ! See how the uninviting waste lias been converted 
into beautifully-carpeted lawns and walks, the dirty 
IVog-ponds and cess-pools cleansed and'dimpled all over 
with Heaven's smiles — because thev have been educated. 
Accidents have been built up into beautiful caves, and 
craggy clilis subdued and embellished. How we admire 
the beauty, purity, and attractiveness of what before 
was filthy and repulsive ! Such is education in the 
physical world. And see how the inhabitants of this 
planet are growing out of their sectarian bonds by cul- 
tivating a higher knowledge of rocks, and shrubs, and 
trees. All days are sacred in the universal temple. 
It is open, like the atmosphere, every day of the week. 
How beautiful and chastening to dwell with Nature. 

Education is the same when applied to the human 
mind. Look at the boy not truly educated, and you see 
what the Central Park was before it felt the magic 
hand of artists. Imagine what the Central Park will 
be one hundred years hence, and you will obtain a hint 
of what true education is destined to accomplish for the 
humau mind. 

By education is not meant a knowledge of Latin and 
Greek, nor familiarity with the routine of popular 
fashionable accomplishments. The truly educated are 
those who have come out from Within, who have grown 
up from the mental quadruped state to the full-blown 
development of the immortal faculties and attributes. 

Imitation is not the basis of true Education. Many 
are but learned pigs ! Some talented men are but 
trained animals. They walk and talk after the manner 



240 MORNING LECTURES. 

of their masters. Medical colleges and theological 
seminaries inculcate simply the lesson of consulting and 
following rigidly in the footsteps of certain authorities. 
Their students are taught to diagnosticate and minister 
to diseases, and to pound and expound the Scriptures, 
in strict accordance with an established rule. Their 
ministrations are simply a routine, a trained perform- 
ance. Depart from the prescribed methods, and a with- 
drawal of the good opinion of teachers and patrons is 
sure to follow. And the excellence and importance of 
these established codes are profoundly felt by fathers, 
who give their money, and by mothers, who offer even- 
ing prayers that their sons may become ministers. Take, 
for example, a family of boys. The strongest and most 
vigorous goes out upon the soil, or he wields the energy 
of his existence in the machine-shop. Another, with 
sympathetic nature, chooses the practice of medicine; 
another the law ; while the last, who is fond of grave- 
yards and poetry, and is likely to have the dyspepsia, 
and is not over-fond of manual labor, studies for the 
ministry. Like a young ghost he goes to the theologic- 
al school, and in due course of study comes out a 
fashionable goblin of old orthodoxy. But no such per- 
son is truly educated. 

True education, instead of cramping and incarcerat- 
ing, liberates the mind. It has no programme beyond 
the discipline whose object is freedom — emancipation 
from the Teacher, and perhaps also, from the doctrines 
taught. Spiritualists, like all who labor for the diffu- 
sion of this true type of education, are incubators and 
social agitators. How powerfully have the recent 
efforts of such educators moved the thinking world I 



FALSE AND TRUE EDUCATION. 241 

Teachers often become consolidated, established, and 
finally infidel to the progressive principles which under- 
lie true education. Time was when one Quaker could 
shake the country for ten miles in every direction. 
Now it takes a section of country twenty miles every 
way to shake one Quaker ! Whitefield and Wesley 
each brought a new magnetic light and a higher spiritual 
enthusiasm. They spread democratic religious con- 
victions, and broke down the church barriers as a loco- 
motive would demolish a temple of glass. Methodism 
was a great Protestant movement. It was a religious 
democratic innovation. We welcome the general lib- 
erating influence of the lessons they taught. Now, 
however, the Methodist Episcopal Church has become 
fashionable, proud, respectable, consolidated, immova- 
ble, and a stumbling-block. 

True education visits man somewhat as the true 
horticulturist goes to plants, the pomologist to trees, 
the agriculturist to the field, the astronomer to the 
heavens, the musician to harmony, and as all true minds 
labor in the departments of science and art. Such influ- 
ences are exerted not to embarrass and imprison, but 
to open, to extract, to call out, to unfold and perfect 
from properties and essences that exist within. 

Pythagoras listened, as he passed a blacksmith's, 
shop, and heard different musical sounds from the blows 
of different sized hammers upon the anvil. By those 
sounds he was educated. He went to his room, sus- 
pended four hammers of different weight and form, and 
striking them, elicited different notes, and so began his 
education in the science of music. Aristotle worked 
differently. To him the different sounds were different 
11 



242 MORNING LECTURES. 

facts, to be used to put his pupils in bondage. His les- 
sons were heavily freighted with the despotic and abso- 
lute. All who differed from his propositions were 
pronounced to be in error. Those who went out from 
his school were simply his disciples. They lived and 
died as such. The students of Pythagoras, on the other 
hand, went out feeling that philosophic truths, and not 
the teacher of them, were of eternal importance. But 
they were not strong to withstand the influences and 
temptations of the times, and they fell from power. So 
will fall all Spiritualists who commit themselves too 
largely to popular influences and aristocratical institu- 
tions. Let all reformers learn by the example of the 
disciples of Pythagoras, to avoid every attempt to 
accomplish great social and political changes by means 
of popular institutions. The lesson is, that new social, 
religious, governmental, and educational develop- 
ments require new means and new men. Old forms 
and institutions subserve the ends for which they were 
established. Such organizations usually die when their 
purposes are fulfilled and their objects attained. 

Nutrition, not education, is the first natural want 
of the little child. The first things that interest the 
babe are its fingers, its toes, and its stomach. These 
define the conscious needs and furnish the amusements 
of the opening mind. In these it finds delight, wonder, 
and satisfaction. It soon, however, discovers that fin- 
gers, toes, and stomach, have limits. New sources of 
diversion are sought. New toys must be brought in. 
The desire for nutrition being quickly gratified, other 
and higher wants are unfolded ; and so on and on, 
and in and in, until you begin to hear from the spirit. 



FALSE AND TRUE EDUCATION. 24:3 

The body's dispensation slowly passes, and almost im- 
perceptibly the spirit begins to unfold its nature and 
needs. The young spirit takes the shape of its physical 
home. Impressions are thus made upon the young mind 
that cannot easily be eradicated. Still more important 
is it to know that the child will, ever and anon, mani- 
fest traits and characteristics in accordance with what 
acted upon it before birth. 

Young Safford, the remarkable mathematical genius, 
received his powers from his mother, who, before his 
birth, became almost infatuated by her love of figures. 
Another mother was so circumstanced with a penurious, 
niggardly, and oppressive husband, that she was com- 
pelled to steal her pin-money from her legal master, 
habitually resorting to evasions and deceits to conceal 
her practices. Petty lying and theft became a settled 
habit with her, and as a result, her next-born child was 
as great a prodigy in lying and stealing as young Saf- 
ford was in mathematics. The ante-natal law in both 
cases is precisely the same. 

According to this ante-natal psychologic law, some 
persons are born prodigies in music and others in mur- 
der. This is the law of ante-natal true education or 
mis-education. Spiritualists do not fear to speak in 
public on this subject — to mothers and to youth in each 
other's presence. Thus Reformers are out-growing the 
restraints of vulgar gentility or genteel vulgarity, and 
do not hesitate to proclaim and redeem truths that shall 
make mankind truly glorious, beautiful, and righteous 
in all things. Spiritualists, more than any other class, 
have dared to investigate education back of birth, back 
of the marriage relation. 



244 MORNING LECTURES. 

Science and Philosophy truly educate and liberate. 
They open up a broad field, and lead the mind far out 
into the spheres of infinitude. They bring facts, prin- 
ciples, and laws, to the understanding. Music and Art 
also tend to liberate. Not always are artists and mu- 
sicians truly liberated, because of the false constraints 
and circumstances of social life which hamper them ; but 
the influences they involuntarily exert, through the in- 
strumentality of their works, are emancipatory and 
exalting to all human kind. 

But for one moment look at American theology ! 
That assumes to settle all doubtful questions. Ecclesi- 
asticism is the great Apollyon under the shadow of 
whose wings are all the educational institutions of the 
country. Children and young men usually come out of 
them very sickly — if possible, more sickly in mind than 
in body. The established system of Education under 
the wings of the Church is a system of monotony. All 
must appear, think, and act alike. Members and sup- 
porters must not differ. No vital controversy is per- 
mitted. By this system Science is regarded as dangerous, 
and Philosophy as the handmaid of the devil. Art and 
Music are good, and the Church approves and appropri- 
ates them. Poetry, too, it needs and uses. But touch 
upon philosophic truths that tend to liberate, to break 
up authority, and knock the bottom out of perdition — 
destroy the devil, extinguish the fires of hell — and at 
once the Church says: "You go too far;" and forth- 
with the occupants of thirty thousand pulpits unitedly 
oppose and strenuously resist your efforts, and they 
zealously pray for the Almighty to restrain such infidel 
tendencies. 



FALSE AND TRUE EDUCATION. 245 

Education, as well as the. State, should be divorced 
from the Church. 

The human mind contains within itself all the ele- 
ments for the development of a perfect character. The 
child is an ovarium. The inmost mental germs ask to 
be quickened, brought out ; for then harmony and bal- 
ance of the faculties will result. It is well to teach 
Science, but we should be cautious and not overload 
one side of the mind. The world longs for balanced 
and industrious minds. 

Parents should not be obeyed because they are 
parents, but rather, because they are worthy of obedi- 
ence. No wonder that some children set up for them- 
selves; it is because they have no real parents. 
Parentage means more than physiology. The temple 
of Childhood is built without the sound of a hammer, 
and obedience (in the true family relation,) is as natural 
as the revolution of the planets. The sun does not 
compel obedience, but is simply in harmony with the 
immutable laws by which obedience among lesser 
bodies is natural and inevitable. 

The Church teaches benevolence and charity for the 
reason that Christ was charitable and benevolent, which 
is no reason at all. Yet I accept the record, and I 
there read that Jesus, when a child, went with his 
parents to Jerusalem, and after the feast of the Pass- 
over he remained in conversation with the doctors. His 
parents returned for him, and his reply to their ques- 
tions and invitation to accompany them home, was ; " I 
am about my Father's business/' Here is an example 
of disobedience to physiological parents. He felt that 
he had a spiritual Father, and hesitated not, under the 



246 MORNING LECTURES. 

pressure of the higher obligations, to transcend the pre- 
rogatives of his physiological parents. 

The record informs us that Mary " laid the words 
to her heart." Let all mothers do likewise. If your 
child disobeys, lay the lesson to your heart, and learn 
which was in fault. Who knows but a child is " about 
his Father's business" when he seeks the fresh whole- 
some air, in defiance of the parental command to stay 
pent up in the house ? His spiritual Father tells him 
that he needs air, exercise, and sunshine ; if denied an 
opportunity by the physiological parent, he steals away 
out of the house, and thus learns burglary and deceit. 
Apply the lesson and introduce a new law — the 
God-code — in your families. Woe be to the fashionable 
code, conflicting with the divine, for thus come discoid 
and evil ! 

In the same record we read that spirits were 
preached to in prison ; shut out from the light of 
heaven. Those who were free, as the truth alone makes 
free, went to them who were in darkness and proclaimed 
glad tidings of great joy. This morning it seems neces- 
sary to preach to minds in like condition. 

The constant reproduction of human experience — 
which is owing to the spiral progress of the race, causes 
many to disbelieve in human improvement. It is true 
that there are a few lost arts ; a few fragments of 
human discovery have been jostled out. Still, when we 
examine the national tumults of the past, the wonder is 
not that we have lost a few arts, but that we have saved 
so many discoveries from oblivion. Some arts have 
been lost because of the excess of business consequent 
upon the immense accumulations of higher arts and 



FALSE AND TRUE EDUCATION. 247 

sciences. The universal currental drift — the unbroken 
tide of material and spiritual progress of the centuries — 
has gathered up and floated onward the fruits of all 
nations and the inventions of all peoples. In our physic- 
al garments, in our furniture and adornments, in our 
arts, sciences, mechanics, &c, are seen the wealth, 
experience, discoveries and industries of Egypt, Europe, 
and Asia. 

Holding complete and perpetual communion with 
the supernal world, is regarded as one of the w lost 
arts." Yet justly regarded, the experiences of pecu- 
liarly qualified persons, here and there in the past, give 
golden promise to the individuals of all nations, that, in 
the full-orbed future, every truly unfolded man, woman, 
and child, shall have a distinct consciousness of an envi-. 
roning spiritual sphere. This fine art of holding com- 
munion with the Superior Life is not " lost," but is 
demonstrably reaffirmed in modern experiences. Time 
never was when man, as to his internal nature and 
career, appeared in such regal splendor. Mankind are 
just learning of man. 

Men's minds are imprisoned by whatsoever is false, 
evil, erroneous, authoritative, and respectable. We are 
here on earth expressly to grow. The gospel we 
announce is not essentially different from the spiritual 
past, which commenced in Egyptian darkness. We do 
not ignore this past, though we are Protestants on a 
boundless scale. We would speak to all who live in 
mental prisons, for so the teachers of another world 
frequently speak to us. 

The prejudiced people of the churches are " in 
prison.' 5 Their very beautiful compartments are num- 



248 MORNING LECTURES. 

bered as are the cells of criminals. The prison-keepers 
(the clergy) would fear to have me speak to their people, 
lest our spiritual truths might make their prisoners too 
free ! Not a-pulpit minister in this city would exchange 
with me, through fear that the lessons of mental free- 
dom we teach might overthrow authority and liberate 
imprisoned congregations. 

Now, think of the wealth and beauty of the immor- 
tal human spirit ! Artists and poets almost exhaust 
their powers in portraying the beauty and glory of out- 
ward creation. But this great natural universe, in all 
its sublimity, is nothing when compared with the essen- 
tial properties and immortal capacities of man's spirit. 
A man who can conceive of an eternal Truth, gives evi- 
dence that he, like the truth, is eternal. His career is 
coextensive with his truth. 

A man who conceives of Beauty demonstrates that 
he possesses it within himself, and that ho is destined to 
become that which he conceives. The power to con- 
ceive of an immortal spirit, stript of perishable flesh, 
deprived of its material avoirdupois, guarantees to the 
conceiving spirit a future and immortal existence. 
All Truth, all Beauty, all Philosophy, and all Science, 
that crop out from man's mental tree, are prophecies 
that mankind are to be what they thus have the power 
to apprehend or conceive. In the depths of the past, 
spiritual men dreamed of a great political and social 
Republic. Americans have come exceedingly near realiz- 
ing that dream. Plato's Atlantis is more than realized 
in America. The wonders of Arabian Nights 7 Enter- 
tainments, however surprising, do not begin to portray 
the real scientific developments of the nineteenth cen- 



FALSE AND TRUE EDUCATION. 249 

tury. Man's mind is superior to Art, Science, Philo- 
sophy, and Theology. All these have come through 
him in the course of the centuries. 

We have, I repeat, no hostility to whatever in the 
past is good, true, beautiful, or great. The good of the 
olden time is living still. But those who are shut up 
in prisons by the foolish education of the past do not 
dare to open themselves to the education of the present. 
To bring such out of religious darkness we are first to 
teach that all men are yet in slavish bondage to their 
various habits, passions, and popular opinions. 

We live in the midst of a great city. People are 
thrown into " prison" by the police of custom. Our 
children are educated to resemble each other in dress, 
in public movements and private deportment. "Children 
must not differ from the neighbors' children ; ladies' 
bonnets are all of one absurd pattern. " Better be out 
of the world than out of fashion." 

Any principle of Truth that will emancipate you is a 
Moses or Jesus to you ; no matter whether it comes to 
you in the form of a book, a tract, a piece of music, or 
a fragment of a poem. Any thing — person, influence, 
or principle — that lifts you out of your mental prison 
and emancipates you, is worthy of your truest devotion 
until another and a newer teacher comes in answer to 
your newer necessities. 

It was remarked by an intelligent lady in my hear- 
ing that she had taken into serious consideration which 
should take the precedence, Reason or Rags. After 
due deliberation, with prayer superadded, she concluded 
that Rags had it, and Reason, with its protests, was 
forced to allow the trial to go by default ; she wears 
11* 



250 MORNING LECTURES. - 

dresses as long and as graceful as others, and yields 
her judgment and experience to the tyrannical bondage 
of a contemptible Fashion. Not on]y do women need 
emancipation, but men also — for they are in prison to 
Custom. The leaders of Fashion cannot take a step 
forward without the approval of fathers, husbands, and 
brothers. It is almost in vain for women to seek to 
emancipate themselves from this despotic rule without 
the aid and support of their associates and masculine 
acquaintances. Thus men imprison women, and women 
turn the keys of Custom on the young members of the 
household. Prison is built upon prison, but the 
Spiritual Reformer should work to- give freedom to the 
captives. 

Many intelligent persons are in prison to " the fear 
of death." Modern light comes as a savior to the dun- 
geon-door to all in this gloomy prison. It comes, also, 
to teach the lesson of charity for those who entertain 
conflicting opinions. The Christian and Jew are to be 
regarded as equally honest. If you have not equal 
charity for both, you are in the prison of prejudice. 
Accept the idea of human progress, and you rise out of 
the " slough of despond," and forthwith begin to enjoy 
the glorious liberty of the Sons of God. 

Some Spiritualists have been inclined to move off 
from the world, like Shakers, and combine themselves 
for the establishment of industrial and economical com- 
munities. They will not be successful, because they do 
not entertain sectional opinions, but believe in the pri- 
vate efficacy of universal principles, and repudiate indi- 
vidual authority. For this reason practical Spiritualists 
will remain in the world. They will wield a wide influ- 



FALSE AND TRUE EDUCATION. 251 

ence directly on the institutions of society. They have 
the true idea that the way to reform society is not to 
remove from it, but to make it what it should be from 
its centers. The theory and practice of isolation are 
to be overthrown by individual growth from within. 

The spiritual principle recognizes germs of immor- 
tal excellence in the lowest, meanest, and most depraved. 
Every man on earth is your compeer. The recognition 
of this fraternal truth not only gives dignity to your 
character, but leads your Brother to lay aside all nar- 
row prejudices and passions toward you and others. 
No man or woman, educated to realize all the noble 
capacities of the human spirit, can consent to pass a 
life unworthy of innate powers and endowments. When 
every man comes before you as a compeer, in his inner- 
most, you will not be unfaithful to the spirit of universal 
love. Popular religion does not fraternally recognize 
any who differ from a prescribed standard. How dif- 
ferent the influence of the doctrine that all human , 
beings are to meet in the Summer-Land ! 

Strive by will-power and inward growth to live less 
in bondage to circumstances.' No matter what or who 
may be your prison-keeper, put him or. it under your 
feet. Accept the higher convictions, and you will expe- 
rience a beautiful interior resurrection. Then you will 
also become a minister of love and wisdom to those 
about you ! Internal growth is the only real growth. 
Start from the center, grow from within, and expand 
fraternally and lovingly day by day. 

Truths cannot be engrafted. You cannot argue a 
belief in immortality into the skeptic's mind. Some 
change may gradually or suddenly come over him — an 



252 MORNING LECTURES. 

accident, an impulse might awaken and quicken his 
interior consciousness — and he may rise into fellowship 
with principles and " feel his immortality," without an 
argument. A man who can be educated to a belief in 
immortality, can be also educated out of it. The under- 
standing takes its bias from outward circumstances and 
education. 

Soon as you see tiiat malformations of character 
come from internal and external conditions, you rise up 
into a new and more charitable estimate of mankind. 
You enter the temple of Brotherhood. As you grow 
from within, so are you liberated. You may not be 
able to escape physically from the prison of your cir- 
cumstances, but you can with these truths rise from 
within, and thus grow as naturally as a tree blossoms. 
One such emancipated individual is a Redeemer to the 
world. When all are thus emancipated, all will be 
redeemed. When all are redemed from ignorance, the 
j whole world will live in accord with Deity. 



THE EQUALITIES AND INEQUALITIES OF 
HUMAN NATURE. 



u Why, when all is bright and happy, should a gloom 
Be spread around us ? Oh, blind and thoughtless soul ! 
'Tis the same Power that reigns, and the same Love 
Is traced alike, in sunshine and in shade." 

This morning I feel impressed with this subject : 
The application of the law of Love — i. e., the God- 
code — to the equalities and the inequalities of human 
nature. 

Since the advent of the harmonial dispensation, thou- 
sands of minds have become familiar with the idea that 
God is essentially present in the compounds of the phy- 
sical world, as well as in the finest and most sublimated 
substances in the spiritual realm. This idea does not 
affirm that there is as much of Infinite love-essence in 
the organism of a bird as there is in the constitution of 
a globe ; but so far as the life of the bird is concerned, 
it is just as truly and essentially God as is the life of 
the globe. Drops contain the properties and principles 
of their fountain. The heart is the companion of the 
brain ; the lungs co-operate fraternally with the heart ; 
the stomach receives, digests, works, and imparts for 
the whole body. It should be remembered, however, 
that the brain receives from the heart just what the 



254 MORNING LECTURES. 

lungs are empowered to communicate to it ; that the 
lungs receive just what the stomach is permitted to 
afford; and that the stomach does its best (I suppose 
you think that is bad enough) with the unsuitable mate- 
rial which ) r ou thoughtlessly cram into it, often when 
the body does not call for anything. The clock says 
" Dinner is ready," and the bell rings, and you eat, 
whether hungry or not. Many of you know that you 
eat " to the damnation of your body ;" meaning the 
destruction of your physiological harmony, which is about 
as much damnation as most people can bear. And yet a 
man may continue to damn himself all the way across 
this terrestrial life, but must stop when he sees the 
Summer-Land. Public opinion there, and the divine 
codes of government as exemplified there, array and 
combine themselves against him. And yet man's power 
to think and to act remains. He may double and treble 
and quadruple the intensity of his troubles. He may 
become infatuated with the idea that, through voluntary 
discords and consequent sufferings, he is working out 
God's secret design. He is, however, altogether and 
unhappily mistaken ; and yet there is another side to 
this conviction, as I shall partly show in this morning's 
discourse. 

The stomach, you will recollect, does its best with 
the materials furnished and consigned to it. Give rose 
leaves, however beautiful, to the silk-worm, and do you 
suppose it would spin you any silk ? Not a fiber could 
it centrifugate. It must have its own food — the mul- 
ticaulis; although it may feed on other leaves besides 
those of the mulberry. Give the noiseless worm its 
appropriate aliment, and beautifully it will wind off 



EQUALITIES AND INEQUALITIES OF HUMAN NATURE. 255 

for human use the fibers of its silken vitality. Such is the 
God-code outside of man. 

Now let us apply this law to ourselves. Suppose 
we feed the human body with inappropriate aliment. 
Under such management can the lungs receive from the 
stomach what the heart most needs ? Do you suppose 
that the heart, which depends on the lungs for its 
blood, can bestow upon the brain*those blessings which 
are its just rewards and requirements? The brain is 
the source of which the heart is but the regulating, 
center — the point of government and administration 
through which all the blood flows — the viaduct, the 
governing organ; and the lungs are the channel of the 
river which flows into and feeds the heart ; and the 
stomach is the originator of the stream that flows into 
and feeds the lungs ; and the substances you eat and the 
fluids you drink are the sources out of which the 
streams, the rivers, the lakes, the seas, and the oceans 
of motion, life, sensation, and intelligence, are made. 

By too well-remembered experience you know that 
" the troubled sea casts up mire and dirt." That is the 
reason why so many people get angry and swear - % anger 
is the "mire" and the profanity is the "dirt," which is 
thrown up from incompatible foods and drinks, or from 
your discordant relation to the outer world and its 
inhabitants. 

God is just as truly exhibited in the operation of the 
stomach as in the operation of the brain. Discord is 
opposed to the Spirit of God ; Harmony is an expo- 
nent of the Divine code, and is infinitely expressive of the 
Divine heart. The revelation of spiritual principles, in 
the present age, has brought to human comprehension 



256 MORNING LECTURES. 

this wondrous gradation of the degrees of deific power 
and love and wisdom, showing that the social subordi- 
nates, or what are called low-natures in the human 
scale, are indispensable to the existence and reciproca- 
tions of the highest. The principle of music runs, rip- 
ples, vibrates, throbs, and sings through all degrees of 
life ; the principle of God everywhere present, over All 
and in All. 

What is God ? Let us not stop to answer, because 
, every mind in the universe is organized to furnish for 
itself the answer, which Vill be * appropriate to the 
necessities of its state and phase of moral development. 
You may behold God as a person, or as a trinity, or as 
filling a whole pantheon, if you be so educated ; or, if 
your education has emancipated you from personalities, 
trinities, pagodas and pantheons, then yon may be at 
liberty to assume that " God is a Principle." Said the 
Platonists, " God is love." But love is a principle ; 
therefore must you not say that God is a principle ? 
But you thus dispossess him of personality, which is 
" atheism" in the opinion of all Christians who cling to 
creeds. Love is a fountain ! It comes not as a person ; 
not as a man or woman. For love is a principle by 
which all things are filled with vitality, animated, 
expanded, and made beautiful for the temples of eter- 
nity. This fountain of love is God, if the Bible defini- 
tion be accepted. If love is God, and if God is love, 
then God is a principle ; so that, according to the rules 
of reason, the Divine personality is dissolved in the 
immensity — of the conception. 

" Fair truth ! for thee alone we seek," is saying, 
" God, for thee alone we seek." This statement is true, 



EQUALITIES AND INEQUALITIES OP HUMAN NATUEE. 257 

whether you say it with your will or not. Why are 
you drawn onward from day to day arid from year to 
year ? Why is the insensate particle that floa4& in the 
sun-beam drawn toward its proper place in the physical 
world ? The particle moves onward not because it 
knows its proper sphere and destiny, but because there 
is a subtile principle of mysterious attraction [love] 
which fills the particle, to which it resistlessly responds, 
and on the bosom of which it harmoniously floats to its 
place in the universe. 

So onward are you moving, in the will of the God- 
code. In the golden beams of an eternal Sun, floating 
in the baptismal fount of infinite love, [attraction,] 
mankind are moving onward to what is beyond ; leaving 
the past to take care of itself, to bury its dead — pressing 
strenuously toward the great surrounding immensity — 
ever expanding and ever reaching into the beautiful 
future. Not because we will it, but because we cannot 
but obey the attraction of God. The essence of the 
divine love is within all — just as truly in the warrior as 
in " the man of peace ;'• just as truly in the cannon that 
projects its message of iron as in the beautiful plants 
that load the air with fragrance. The laws of mechanics 
are supremely beautiful. Angles prophesy ovals ; octa- 
gons indicate the coming of circles ; spirals foreshadow 
onward moving principles. Rocks in the globe presup- 
pose the ultimate pulverization of them into tillable 
earth. From crude rocks come the beautiful soils on 
which flowers and harvest grains grow, feeding the 
lower animals first, then the higher, and finally the 
highest ; thus preparing the fine atoms of earth for the 



258 MORNING LECTURES. 

formation of a Summer-Land, in a higher and more 
glorious realm. 

And the equalities and inequalities of human nature 
are ail comprehended by and reconciled with the grand 
scheme. To those who do not see the comprehending 
plan and principle, the inequalities and iniquities of 
humanity are regarded as the manifestations of the 
devil and of original sin. But to those who do see the plan 
and the principle, mankind's involuntary missteps are 
deemed the incidental manifestations of the progressive 
development of the Divine Spirit through the human 
family. Men will act toward their fellows in accord- 
ance with their estimates of human nature in general. 
If, for example, you consider that the asteroids, which 
occupy the space between the planets, were once one 
globe, but thrown asunder in consequence of the exceed- 
ing moral depravity of the people who once inhabited 
that globe, as one Rev. Dr. Cummings holds and pro- 
claims, then you will very likely also believe the same 
with respect to the discords of men's homes and habits, 
and you will be inclined to act -in accordance with such 
conviction, rendering you a very morose neighbor and 
a bad citizen. But, on the other hand, suppose you 
conceive and receive the glorious gospel, that " God is 
present in all things, 75 that, as David said, if you should 
descend to " the belly of hell/' or to the uttermost parts 
of the earth, yet you would find the spirit and laws of 
Jehovah there ; do you not think that your belief in 
intrinsic evil would depart, and that a flood of love and 
worshipful gratitude would pour from your soul toward 
the whole humanity? 

The equalities and inequalities of human nature are 



EQUALITIES AND INEQUALITIES OF HUMAN NATURE. 259 

from the infinite fountain of progress, just as drops of 
water contain the properties and principles of the ocean 
whence they came. Individual qualities contain the 
properties of the Father and Mother. You remember 
Pope's couplet : 

" All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
Whose spirit Nature is, and God the soul." 

If Pope will permit this emendation, his lines will 
meet the discoveries of later times. The qualities of 
human nature partake of the properties and principles 
of the Infinite Spirit. Equalities and Inequalities are 
incidental to these qualities. These manifest themselves 
first, in affection. The little child clings lovingly to 
its mother; the little bird that is born does the same. 
The progeny of the different animals do not learn to 
love their mothers. The lesson of love is born with the 
heart. Every living soul returns to the fountain for 
sustenance of affection — for the loving magnetic em- 
brace, and finally for all the fertilizing influences which 
eventually emancipate the little one from its immediate 
dependence upon the fountain. Such love is deeper than 
the intellect ; it comes from the essences of God and 
Nature. 

The inequalities of human nature, when particularly 
traced and analyzed, arise not from the Fountain of Love, 
but from the sphere of relations, adjustments, and mani- 
festations. The Fountain is always the same, and the 
streams are like their source, but in the sphere of mat- 
ter and of its organs, inequalities are manifested. 
Spiritually unfolded . minds regard inequalities as 
imperfections incident to the ascending flight of pro- 
gressive principles. Think how differently mankind 



260 MORNING LECTURES. 

are put up in their physiological and phrenological 
organs ! One person is sensitive and impressible ; ano- 
ther is clad, as it were, with impenetrable iron. One 
is alive to the impulses and requirements of love; 
another treats affection as though it were a piece of 
merchandise. One mind has the faculty of analyzing 
propositions ; another has not the slightest conception 
of such a faculty. These special inequalities are equali- 
ties in the grand system. One person is incased in 
powerful organic armor, adapted to the most Roman 
and heroic work among the world's solid unresponsive 
substances ; another is so constitutionally built as to 
tremble and shiver, like an aspen leaf, in the slightest 
breath from society, or from an antagonistic emotion 
in other natures ; there are yet others, who, positive to 
earth, are easily moved by the fine celestial currents 
that flow through the encompassing atmosphere from 
higher spheres. How differently organized, how une- 
qual, are those persons! Suppose society should acci- 
dentally jostle them into the marriage relation ! The 
iron-clad character legally bound to the sensitive. Pro- 
geny come, but they are discordant. One child is born 
with little brain and much body ; the next, perhaps, 
all brain and no body. One dies from an excess of 
physical vigor, producing fevers in early childhood — 
croup, obstructions, and inflammations ; another dies 
from an excess of cerebral nervousness, not because the 
brain is too large, but because the body is too small. 
In these cases it is possibly well that they do not live. 
The great God, both Father and Mother, careth for all 
■ — " taketh knowledge of the falling sparrow, and 
lights a world with glory ;" just as attentive to the 



EQUALITIES AND INEQUALITIES OF HUMAN NATURE. 261 

lilies of the valley as to "the highest seraph that 
adores" in the infinite temple of truth. 

I am sorry for every mind that cannot, from a lofty 
eminence of interior growth, contemplate the empire of 
inequalities as a part of the plan. When one has tasted 
of the Pierian spring of immortal truths, and drank 
deeply thereof, and descended to the terrestrial valleys 
of discordant experience, then regret and sorrow for 
others blossom in the troubled and sympathizing heart. 
Those who have never been on the Alpine summits of 
ideas, know nothing of the high countries and magnifi- 
cent scenes above their heads. 

The gentle Nazarene was filled with concern for 
people who had no concern for themselves. He under- 
stood their conditions, and appreciated wants and needs 
which they had not arisen either to express or compre- 
hend. What mean these pulpit sayings that some 
people ought to be condemned for not taking as much 
interest in themselves as a high-minded, benevolent, 
spiritual person may feel for them ? Is not such preach- 
ing illogical, and philosophically absurd ? A child takes 
^as much interest in itself as it is qualified and educated 
to take. The Nazarene wept in deep sorrow, -and would 
have philanthropically gathered the chosen people 
together " as a hen gathers her chickens." But do you 
think that the " chickens" deserve to be consigned to 
hell because they did not feel in their own behalf what 
" the hen" felt for them ? 

Inequalities in human nature are equalities wher 
viewed from the center of the system. They are nor 
necessarily imperfections. Some men are by nature 
inclined to work in iron and stone, to delve and dig, to 



262 MORNING LECTURES. 

scrub and cook, to eat and to sleep ; other men are 
qualified to do many exactly opposite things, and to 
turn the labors of the other party into channels which 
widen as they approach the world's wants. These ine- 
qualities are imperfections tending to correct them- 
selves through humanity's growth. There must be 
different notes and ascending scales in music — octaves 
one above the other — and whole notes must be divided 
and fractionalized*. Feet and hands, stomach and bowels, 
liver and pancreas, and kidneys, are as necessary to 
society as individual man. What would society do 
. without governing organs — without lungs, and heart, 
and brain ? And there are individuals who, by organi- 
zation, seem qualified to perform these various functions 
in the social body. 

I come now to make the application. The God-code 
develops the inequalities as well as the equalities of 
human nature. Men who hold that benevolence is an 
intellectual abstraction, consider themselves, on account 
of their large mental capacities, authorized to use people 
who are weak enough to allow themselves to be used. 
But persons who have a high feeling, which, like amber, 
pours over the intellectual faculties and gives a divine 
color to all their decisions with reference to those 
beneath them, are certain to make the laborers feel that 
they are not useless, or menial, or subordinate, but as 
essential in the great plan of the Infinite as are those 
whom they may be serving. And this is the practical 
lesson of this discourse. No mind under the influence 
of the Divine principle, will ever intentionally cause an 
inferior to feel his inferiority. In the true order of 
humanity no souls will ever realize that they are hands 



EQUALITIES AND INEQUALITIES OF HUMAN NATURE. 263 

and feet, or inferior parts and indifferent organs, in the 
social economy of the rudimental sphere. 

Such is the divine government in the Land of per- 
petual Summer beyond the stars. Can the head say to 
the hand, " I have no use of you V* No wise head ever 
thinks such language. The feet and the hands are deli- 
cately cared for and preserved by wise brains, even with 
love's refinement ; for the hands and the feet are 
regarded as both spiritual and beautiful. " All are but 
parts of one harmonious whole." Look at the feet and 
hands of society in the South, whose skins are dark, who 
are down at the very basis of human concern and interest. 
The Divine principles of love and justice teach you to 
consider them as essential to the great workings and 
ends of the infinite plan as you are. 

There are two kinds of ambition : one causes you to 
desire the elevation of the world ; the other to seek to 
elevate yourself. If you would be truly elevated, aspire 
to lift those about you ; you will rise with the tide of the 
divine power which you freely pour out upon others. 
The ocean which ceaselessly throbs, and is so remorse- 
less to thousands, is not possessed with the silly ambi- 
tion to be raised in the estimation of the world. The 
ocean contents itself with being truly and faithfully an 
ocean. It is unselfish, and is therefore Godlike. It 
buoys up innumerable vessels, freighted with countless 
human beings, each the center of diversified interests. 
They float confidingly on its bosom, flying the flag of the 
government that authorized their sailing. 

Thus you have embarked for the voyage of immor- 
tality. The ocean is the God-code of the universe, the 
love-ocean of principles, filled with countless personal 



264 MORNING LECTURES. 

loves and individualized minds. This ocean floats us 
all upon its bosom, together with inconceivable myriads 
who have gone before us in the voyage of eternity. 
Now if this divine love-ocean was concerned with 
and for itself — was exceedingly anxious that somebody 
should get on the shore, and prayerfully tell the uni- 
verse of its " greatness" and " wisdom" and " love/' it 
would be a very selfish and treacherous ocean for you 
to trust your barks upon. But unlike the Atlantic, the 
divine ocean sympathizes and throbs harmoniously with 
the vessels which it lovingly floats ; and in this way, 
(for no other way is possible,) it is lifted and made 
unutterably happy by the accumulated happinesses which 
it has bestowed unselfishly upon others. 

Inequalities are as natural as equalities. All efforts 
to fix human beings upon a social level of life and 
government, are illogical and impracticable. We are 
qualified to breathe air alike, to see alike, to hear alike ; 
for the principles of life are the same ; but some can 
hear no music in the songs of birds ; and take no high 
happiness in the joys of others beneath them. Men and 
women cannot become alike in any of these great spheres 
of action; and yet the divine principle of Love gives to 
each an equality of existence to the extent of his or her 
capacity. It is always " more blessed to give than to 
receive." Self-elevation is based in selfishness ; it is 
the wrong road to happiness and self-improvement. 
Forget how you personally look when working in a 
good cause ; keep away from the looking-glass of public 
opinion ; be natural, thoroughly honest, and full of 
integrity ; then virtue's influence will always flow out 



EQUALITIES AND INEQUALITIES OF HUMAN NATURE. 265 

from you, healing the spirits of those who are crushed 
by misfortune and sorrow. 

We read that miracles were performed in the olden 
time. What were they ? Christ raised " the dead." 
Can you not go and do likewise ? How often you might 
be a Christ to people about you ! How many minds and 
hearts are dead and in their graves — the graves of 
unemployed faculties. Spirits who have come to you 
may have raised the dead in you. Can you not also do 
something for the dead in others ? Intellectual and 
Spiritual faculties, in many minds about you, are yet in 
their dark tombs. They await the heavenly summons ! 
Can you not be the one to sound the trumpet of resur- 
rection ? Can you not knock at the door of the sepul- 
cher ? Can you not speak the magic word that will 
awaken the sleeper and bring forth life from the silent 
tomb ? Many faculties in those about you are perishing 
for lack of air and exercise. Do you not feel sad for 
such ? Do you not often feel more sad for many people 
than they do for themselves ? 

If you would perform miracles, if you would -raise 
the dead, if you would bring the kingdom of heaven on 
earth, apply the God-code, which is impartial love and 
progressive wisdom, to all who come within the circle of 
your consciousness. 
12 



SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAM). 



"If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye 
believe if I tell you of heavenly things ?" 

It appears to me that the foregoing words are 
peculiarly applicable to the subject-matter of this dis- 
course. 

The third chapter of John opens one of the richest 
mines of Platonic Philosophy. You remember that the 
doctrine of the " new birth/ 5 or what is theologically 
called " regeneration," is there introduced in behalf of 
persons who were imperfectly generated and badly. 
born to start with — minds only half or two-thirds made 
up, " sent into this breathing world" full of physiologic- 
al mistakes and psychological errors ; which must be 
either voluntarily outgrown, or else involuntarily ago- 
nized through to a successful issue — " regeneration" 
being theologically prescribed as the true medicine, the 
only Divine plan, projecting over immense sins, short- 
ening the road to Abraham's bosom, economizing or 
transcending the methods of justice, and saving the sin- 
ner from the pit of eternal and well-merited punish- 
ments. But I believe that all who voluntarily leave the 
world, the flesh, alcohol, tobacco, and the other devils, 
practically set their spirits and their bodies sailing 
toward the immortal Future. Such pay the genuine 



SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 267 

coin at the ticket-office of repentance ; they comply with 
the conditions, and are guaranteed a safe and happy 
voyage to the heavenly kingdom. 

But look at the Church plan. From the many pro- 
bations that are granted and accepted, and judging 
from the many false steps and moral mistakes made by 
the converts, it is probable that multitudes run off the 
track. Notwithstanding the fact that they voluntarily 
enlisted in the spiritual army, purchased tickets in the 
pew-department, and started with all the best sympa- 
thies of the brothers and sisters in Jesus, with the com- 
bined prayers of a mighty congregation to keep their 
souls steady toward the goal ; still great numbers 
switch off and run for years in the world's popular 
tracks. 

Nicodemus could not properly understand the mys- 
terious simplicity of a spiritual birth. I never saw a 
Nicodemus that could. A materialist, a man who 
believes only in the obvious, in weights and measures, 
who acquires his knowledge through the external, is a 
man whose thoughts extend only to the question which 
was put by Nicodemus. One of the most beautiful Sons 
of the Infinite Father replied to him in astonishment : 
" Art thou a master in Israel" — that is, art thou a 
learned lawyer, a doctor of divinity, a responsible pub- 
lic man, a governor over many people — " and knowest 
not these things ?" Think of a leader of the people, 
standing up in authority- before multitudes, influencing 
their feelings and conduct, and yet knowing not that 
"that which is flesh, is flesh, and that which is spirit, is 
spirit." 

To be born of " water" as well as of " the spirit/ 5 is 



268 MORNING LECTURES. 

too much like the hydropathic system of cure to be con- 
genial to most persons. It is supposed to be more 
pleasant and less laborious to be " born of the spirit" — 
of sentiment, of good endeavor, and t)f the conscious 
possession of high motives. But it is quite too practi- 
cal to be also born of a clean body, which means 
" water." I am rejoiced and grateful that some such 
man as John the Baptist — the " forerunner" — perceived 
the beautiful emblematic induction, and made the 
demonstration that the physical temple is the basis on 
which the intellectual and spiritual superstructure must- 
be erected — that a true " new birth" begins in the body 
department. 

" If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe 
not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly 
things V 9 That is to say, if a person, when testifying 
of common earthly things, is known to be as truthful 
and unimpeachable as others who believe a very differ- 
ent creed — known to be as reliable in his speech and in 
character as his orthodox neighbors — why can you not 
as readily believe the same person when he soberly 
speaks of elevated things, which exist out of and beyond 
the sensuous sphere? The question is very simple. 
Nicodemus, not being acquainted with the science of 
electricity and meteorology, could not understand what 
caused the wind to rush from one place and blow into 
another. Inasmuch as he could not comprehend the 
law of the blowing tempests, nor the wafting of the 
gentle evening zephyrs, how could he understand the 
simple mystery of the " birth of the spirit" ? The pro- 
gressive growth of the spirit in truth and right is more 
mysterious than the coming and going of terrestrial 



SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. '269 

winds. Inasmuch, therefore, as most men are yet igno- 
rant of the common phenomena of the physical world, 
is it not presumptuous in them to stand up in the midst 
of this temple of God and proclaim their superficial 
skepticisms concerning profounder, deeper, vaster, 
more elevated things ? Hundreds pompously denounce 
spiritual things while they iinow little or nothing of the 
underlying laws and refined conditions by which these 
marvelous visions and rich experiences are obtained. 
Such minds arrogantly presume to sit in final judgment 
upon the spiritual experience of others. The Naza- 
rene when answering Nicodemus, was compelled to raise 
the question of personal veracity. " If," he said sub- 
stantially, " I am worthy of being believed when telling 
you of ordinary things — if I am entitled to be trusted 
in earthly things — why should not my testimony be 
accepted when I speak of things elevated, supersensu- 
ous, celestial, and heavenly V 

Every mind intuitively recognizes the eternal value 
of pure purposes. The converse of the proposition is as 
self-evident — i. e., the eternal disadvantage of immoral 
purposes, nesting and breeding in the centers of indi- 
vidual life. We should urge this statement of the 
question, were it not true that the divine constitution 
of the material and spiritual universe so works, that out 
of darkness light is born — out of evil, good — out of 
lowest imperfections the flowers of purity bloom on the 
high summits of all things, principalities, and princi- 
ples. Were this progressive redemptiveness no* true, 
it would then be true to say — as do the orthodox, who 
see only absolute and irreconcilable opposites in the 
structure and method of the Divine government — that, 



270 MORNING LECTURES. 

inasmuch as eternal value is stamped upon the soul with 
pure motives, so is there " eternal condemnation" writ- 
ten upon the soul that is moved with immoral motives. 
In all statements, you perceive, there are some items of 
truth. 

The material point of the present discourse is now 
reached — viz., the influence^which immoral motives and 
impure purposes exert upon man's interior — upon the 
centers of his life, character, endowments, and faculties 
of his inmost, deathless spirit. High purposes invaria- 
bly expand and exalt the best powers of the immortal 
mind — giving harmonial roundness, symmetrical beauty, 
and celestial completeness of inward growth. Pure 
motives go before the individual like a divine magnet — 
drawing the impressible spirit pleasurably onward, over 
all surrounding evils and prevailing embarrassments. 
There can be no defeat in that spirit which is actuated 
every day and in all moments by the largest, highest, 
purest purposes of which it can conceive. It has* been 
clearly shown that the rich and powerful Jews, who 
persecuted and finally killed the body of the poor divine 
friend of humanity, supposing themselves Successful the 
while, were really and totally defeated — bankrupt and 
overthrown in every exalted sense ; but the Man, who 
passed so completely through the terrific ordeal, was 
victorious every instant of time — outriding the tempta- 
tions of passion, quelling the storms of the ages, and 
stilling the tempest of cupidity and selfishness. The 
Jews, successful in worldly matters, were in all other 
respects utterly defeated. Behold the effect of that 
martyrdom upon the world. It is teeming with beauti- 
ful sentiments of love and charity — with glorious civil 



SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 271 

and educational institutions, that have cropped out and 
blossomed from the fertile influence of that one example 
of a good Man dying that his truths might live. 

High purposes alone presided. If the Infinite Father 
was so moved from the interior — this is the orthodox 
proposition — as to prepare and send to earth his only 
begotten, then the Father jvas actuated by the highest, 
deepest, and most heavenly purpose. He intended good 
to all and harm to none. Orthodoxy makes a sad theory 
of it. But the spiritual thought, within the crude doc- 
trine, is not destitute of truth. The theory of the flow- 
ering out and incarnation of the Divine Spirit in a 
human being, exhibits love infinitely higher than force, 
and broader than intellect, and more influential — sub- 
duing enmities, overcoming evils, and banishing from 
the earth, passion and strife and war. This is the 
spiritual picture within the theoretical incarnation. In 
this light the incarnation has been a success. Practi- 
cally and philosophically, he alone is truly successful 
who is capable of embosoming and exemplifying those 
high motives which Mary's Son felt, inculcated, and 
manifested in the far distant past. 

The infallible history of each person is written in 
the Summer-Land. A man who lives for himself, loses 
himself. If he wishes to gain the world, he as certainly 
loses it. The death-dealing immoralities of his purposes 
demoralize all parts of him, curtail his beautiful powers, 
paralyze his natural energies, and defeat him every step 
of the way, from the cradle to the coffin. 

But a consolation is at hand. Death is a chemical 
screen — a strainer, a finely-woven sieve — through 
which, by the perpetual flow of the laws of Mother 



272 MORNING LECTURES. 

Nature, individuals are passed on to their true stations 
in the Summer-Land. The squares in the death-sieve 
are so exceedingly fine, that only finest particles and 
certain powers and principles can go through ; while on 
the earth-side is peeled off and cast.down a lifeless mass 
of bones and fleshly corruption. 

A process of refinement is this wondrous chemico- 
sieve death-experience. The spirit with the encasing 
soul, hidden centers of life, all the characteristics that 
have distinguished, and all the motives that have influ- 
enced the person — all these easily pass through the 
death-strainer, the screen or sieve ; while the physical 
body and its particles, which cannot pass through, are 
dropped : and what is more gratifying, with the physical 
body are left behind many of those hereditary predis- 
positions and abnormal conditions which gave rise to 
discordant passions and false appetites, called demons 
and unclean spirits. The causes of these demons and 
unclean spirits remain on the earth-side of the death- 
strainer, while the effects, which those causes exerted on 
the soul, being so fine and so mixed with the soul- 
substance, pass through, and remain with the individual 
long after he has attained to his social center in the 
Summer-Land. 

Persons, or, rather, individualities, are not therefore 
destroyed by death. Nothing is changed save the dense 
physical form and the low material world in which they 
live. This chemical screenage, this extraordinary refining 
process and preparation, is one which all have to sub- 
mit to at the end of the present life. The effect there is 
like the birth of each into the present world. Much is 
elevated to the world into which we come at birth ; 



SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 27b 

while, at the same moment, and by the same process, 
much is left behind in the reproductive sphere. 

In the temperaments and characteristics of the indi- 
vidual are laid the foundations of the different " Social 
Centers" that exist in the different mansions of the 
Father's house that was not built with hands. Those 
mansions, or, to continue the figure, the different rooms, 
are inhabited by classes of persons who have taken with 
them, through the death-strainer, different intellectual, 
spiritual, and social characteristics — integral attributes 
and temperamental individualities of character — ruling 
affections, and the effects of propensities that have been 
generated and strengthened by long-continued practices 
in this world before death. 

Regeneration is a spiritualizing process, the same 
after death as it sometimes is before. If the person 
starts from earth interiorly cleansed, he will arrive at 
the next sphere in a corresponding condition. If the 
persons start from their death-screener with the earth, 
the flesh, and the demoniac influences impressed upon 
their souls, they will arrive at and sojourn in appropri- 
ate " Social Centers/ 3 with the accumulated effects still 
influencing the inner life and the manifestations of the 
affections. Thus radical differences in men and women 
cause different societies in the next sphere. Are there 
not many persons about you, perhaps dwelling every 
day in your homes, who have " no part or lot" in your 
cherished sentiments and happiest experiences ? You 
sit at the dining-table, you look into the eyes of a per- 
son on the opposite -side, and lo ; you are strangers by 
leagues,- perhaps you are whole ages asunder. Different 
sentiments, different attractions, and different social 
12* 



274 MORNING LECTURES. 

habits, give rise to different societies. Perhaps husband 
and wife, or brother and sister, though living in this 
world in the same house, eating at the same table, will 
become members of spiritual societies as far apart as the 
poles asunder. Society would be everywhere monoton- 
ous, both on earth and in the succeeding sphere, if indi- 
viduals were all alike, all cast with the same combination 
of temperaments. 

You begin plainly to comprehend, I think, that if 
these things are true on earth — about you and in you — ■ 
death not destroying you, there must be great " diversi- 
ties" among the inhabitants in the* Summer-Land. 
These various super-mundane societies are predicated 
upon the continuation of the radical distinguishing cha- 
racteristics of men and women. There are, conse- 
quently, societies embodying many of the effects of the 
immoral motives and degrading purposes by which 
women and men have been actuated and made miserable 
in this world. 

This is an important and momentous truth. The 
Summer-Land is a natural state of human existence — 
growing out of the universal system of causes and effects, 
laws and ultimates, just as logically and scientifically 
as to-day grew out of yesterday. Are you not to-day, 
in all parts of your being, the legitimate result of what 
the laws, conditions, and experiences of yesterday made 
you ? You are dead to yesterday. Your life is here 
and now. All you know of yesterday is remembrance. 
No man or woman can live in any past hour, except in 
the chambers of intangible memory. You live now, 
and thus it will be innumerable ages hence. N The uni- 
versal verdict of reason will be this ever-present con- 



SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 275 

sciousness of existence — the Past a ghost of the memory; 
the Future an unfinished picture, illuminated by the 
inextinguishable lights of eternal hope. Throughout 
innumerable ages, the Past will appear like a dream; 
while the Future will be a subject of curiosity, of sur- 
prise and attractiveness, in the succeeding ages of eter- 
nal life. To-morrow is new and attractive to those who 
live truly in the Present. None can tell with absolute 
certainty what will happen to-morrow. There is, never- 
theless, an universal confidence in its coming, because 
of the immutable and perpetual flow of Nature's laws, 
causing the revolution of the planets and the rising and 
setting of suns — thus all men believe that to-morrow 
will surely come. 

Now I will put a question : If your common reason 
tells you so clearly of earthly things, why can you not 
believe your wiser intuitions and their superior logic 
when they tell you of heavenly things ? If ye believe 
that the progression of months and years will surely 
bring you up to the chemical screen called Death, why 
can ye not also believe that the shining river which 
flows skyward, in harmony with the noiseless rotation 
of this planet, will float you through that screen to a 
Social Center in the Summer-Land ? All men go for- 
ward with their thoughts and anticipations — believing, 
with the simplicity of very young children, that to-morrow 
will come. This, I say, is the uprising voice and irre- 
pressible logic of Intuition, aided and confirmed by 
experience, and made practical by the constant, habitual 
exercise of the reasoning faculties. All men naturally 
expect to live over the present, into To-morrow. Thus 
mankind buy lands, and hire carpenters, and build 



276 MORNING LECTURES. 

beautiful houses, and nicely furnish their new-made 
homes, as though everything, including personal exist- 
ence, was vouchsafed to last forever on earth. But this 
is the usual experience : After all is completed and fully 
prepared — the house garnished and swept, and every- 
thing put in order for a long, luxurious physical life on 
earth — then the death-screen drops, the interior person 
passes through " in the twinkling of an eye/ 5 and the 
rich, lawful heirs are left to weep, to put away in the 
ground what the screen refused, and to live as long 
and comfortably as they can upon " the property of the 
deceased." 

It is easy for the human mind to fix its imagination 
upon a long life in this world. So common was this 
inverted testimony of the fancy, that the ancient Jews 
supposed " the kingdom of heaven" was certainly coming 
"on the earth." Mankind, they thought, were not to 
ascend a progressive Jacob's ladder. The heavenly 
kingdom was to be drawn down out of the supernatural 
realm and made literally manifest here — a fancy in reli- 
gion to which Adventists are strongly attached — so that 
great wildernesses would blossom, animals internally 
opposed to each other would -become harmonious, and 
lions and lambs would, in peace and friendship, lie down 
together. Christians, with more Ideality, put a spiritual 
interpretation upon the literalness of the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures, and thus made tolerable common sense of what 
thousands of Jews believed to be true from a very differ- 
ent standpoint. In the Lord's Prayer, which contains 
many Jewish thoughts and expressions, we find this 
double-meaning allusion to the kingdom of heaven. 
Now what, think you, was intended by that prayer? 



SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 277 

This answer seems correct : It was designed to float 
the mind out of materialism into spiritual thought and 
holy aspiration. " The kingdom of heaven/ 5 to the soul 
that uttered the prayer, was a condition of intellectual, 
social, and spiritual harmony ; in which mental condi- 
tion pure truth would reign triumphant, even as it pre- 
vails in every beautiful and harmonious family in the 
Summer-Land, with whom dwell harmony, peace, and 
eternal happiness. The Lord's Prayer is a conception 
which, interiorly viewed, does fully harmonize with the 
deductions of philosophy ; but it was as legitimate a 
development from the Jewish basis of literalism as flow- 
ers are natural growths from the germs which precede, 
them. The prayer was constructed with a literal 
" kingdom of heaven" in it, so that the Jewish mind 
could grasp it, and adopt it in its rituals, and thus pray 
for the down-coming and universal expansion of the 
spirit's beautiful truths. 

Now this is my testimony : The Summer-Land, as 
to the origin of the social centers, is made of persons 
from all parts of this inhabitable globe not only, but 
populations also from far-distant planets that are con- 
stituted like this earth — each globe producing an infinite 
v variety of radical personal characteristics and tempera- 
mental differences. All these individuals carry upon 
the life within their faces, as well as in the secret 
chambers of their affections, the effects of life on the 
globe that produced them. If the person has been 
moved and governed by high and beautiful motives, 
he naturally and instinctively seeks association with 
those who have been similarly actuated and developed. 
If, on the other hand, the person has been led by low 



278 y MORNING LECTURES. 

and demoralizing motives, he as naturally seeks those, 
who, before death, had been correspondingly influenced. 
There a man can elect his friends and gravitate to his 
own congenial Social Center — in fact, he can tell before 
he goes, by looking through the death-screen, or strainer, 
with what manner of minds he will probably live ; at 
least until the redemptive evangel of " regeneration" 
through repentance and progression reaches his affec- 
tions, until perfectly pure purposes are born in him ; 
the same in effect whether he starts from a Methodist 
prayer-meeting in New York City, or from the center 
of some spiritual society in the fragrant groves of the 
Summer-Land. Progression out of imperfection is a 
purely spiritual transaction, growing out of the same 
general causes and resulting in the same internal effects 
upon character. Societies, in general terms, are natural 
exponents of the interior realities of the societies of men 
and women on different planets. . 

There is tfchere a society or province called " Alto- 
lissa." Persons have returned from it and testified that 
they were, while dwellers of earth, almost wholly influ- 
enced by the idea of gaining money, position, power 
among men. And it would seem, that these invisible 
characters are influential still among those who are 
similarly organized and influenced in this world. When 
persons are actuated by the selfish motives to accumulate 
wealth, power, position, and influence, they become 
mediums to some extent. As the violet absorbs all but 
the blue ray, or as a red flower absorbs all but the red 
color, so is the mind of man in its impressibilities and 
mediumship. He will take on all that for which he has 
affinity. . He will absorb from each society in the Sum- 



SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER- LAND. 279 

mer-land precisely such influences as are in accordance 
with his magnetic powers, and he will exclude all other 
influences, from whatever source. 

Now if the death-strainer, or screen, was not per- 
fect — if, when passing through the chemical change, we 
do not leave the causes of appetites and passions behind 
us — then, in truth, men in this world would really be 
injured and degraded by contact with the unseen popu- 
lations. But men are benefited, and not injured, by 
such contact. Now and then men are stimulated some- 
what in their course ; but they are not degraded, are 
not made worse by the contact ; only patted on the 
back, flattered by unwise spirits, and sometimes approved, 
as a too fond mother approbates her pet child even in 
its errors. So men, moving in very low and demoralizing 
circles in this world, will sometimes experience a sort 
of self-satisfaction and contentment. They do not have 
those " fine compunctions" of conscience, which so many 
pious people imagine they must necessarily have ; these 
feelings are for a time laid aside, not by the use of 
tobacco, alcohol, and opium, but by sympathetic con- 
tact with those spirits who are not wise and grown in 
purity. 

Such characters on earth absorb the rays of spirit- 
life that are congenial to them, and exclude all the 
others. Thus you see men moving as earnestly against 
the truth as for it. It is a matter of astonishment to 
many Northmen how the Southerners can have their 
religious meetings and political gatherings, appoint " a 
day" for sincere " prayers" to be sent to the kingdom of 
heaven, and do all things just like the fii loyal" and 
" religious" people of the North. Do you suppose that 



280 MORNING LECTURES. 

men who have gone from the ranks of Rebeldom, and 
who have passed through the screen of death, suddenly 
lost all religious and political notions on the death-bed ? 
No. The rule works both ways. They have a political 
scheme and a religious experience, and both were to 
them genuine. These return to their brethren in the 
South. When earnestly engaged in devotion and prayer, 
the Southerner feels as heaven-approved as the 
Northerner. You know that the discordant man, who 
walks Broadway with murder in his heart, can see the 
sun as clearly as can the man of peace. A morally bad 
character can physiologically eat and drink and sleep 
just as good as can the best. The laws that operate 
in your physical being operate the same in his. He 
goes round with the planet, experiences the flow and 
recession of emotions ; but he can only absorb those influ- 
ences from society with which he has affinity, and he knows 
nothing of what others experience. Suppose,for example, 
that I should " exchange pulpits" with the evangelical 
Brother who lectures every Sunday in Grace Church. 
The ladies and gentlemen there would absorb from me 
only those thoughts and sentiments for which they have 
an educational sympathy. They would reject every- 
thing else. There would be between us no sympathy, 
no fellowship ; yet they are constituted just like our- 
selves, and in ten years from this they may come to feel 
as we do ; but it is not at all likely that we shall ever 
feel as they do, because souls cannot go back. 

Hence those who go to the Summer-Land cannot 
return just as bad as they were before they started. 
Going through death cleansed them largely of causes, 
conditions, and temptations, leaving with them the 



SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 281 

results treasured up in their affections, in their sympa- 
thies, in their antipathies, inclinations, disinclinations, 
loves, hates, attractions, and repulsions. Of course they 
have sympathy only for congenial associations in that 
better life ; but such associations are, necessarily, on a 
higher plane than though they were of earth. The 
" higher plane," however, is so little removed, so slightly 
shaded off from that in which they lived while here, 
that it requires but little change to feel themselves " at 
home. 55 

True, contradictory characters often go to the Sum- 
mer-Land. Sometimes imagination gets the start of 
conscience. The youth feels, thinks, hopes beyond his 
powers to grasp or attain ; but as the years roll through 
the spirit, he grows gradually solid, and strong, and 
practical. Conscience is not fully born in some souls 
until after death ; that is, the idea of right and wrong is 
to them " a theory." I have seen persons, who, having 
a very large sense of right and wrong, wondered how 
their most intimate acquaintances could do things dia- 
metrically antagonistic to such sense without being sur- 
prised or astonished, and still live among folks just as 
though nothing had happened. It is because the con- 
scientious part of the spirit had not yet been fully born. 
The person might have been born on three or five sides 
of his character, and yet there remain other parts not 
born from error and wrong, and hence the defective- 
ness ; hence, also, the monstrosity which the character • 
and conduct of such a person presents — deceiving, mur- 
dering, robbing — yet thinking nothing more of the 
self-condemnation of his crimes than most men do of 
transacting their ordinary business. It is because these 



282 MORNING LECTURES. 

men have not &s much light in principles as you ; they 
do not yet perceive the white ray of pure justice ; they 
cannot take it in, any more than a red plant could take 
' in the red ray. So a man who cannot absorb the princi- 
ple of justice is a man who cannot comprehend its 
requirements. 

Society is constructed so as to require regeneration 
and progression. The Christian system prays for the 
better time. Nicodemus asked how a man could be 
taken out of his .defects — brought out of the flesh and 
made as pure as spirit. Jesus did not answer him in 
common words, but told him that as he could not under- 
stand the ordinary phenomena of Nature — the blowing 
of the wind, for example — he certainly could not under- 
stand that which was interior and far more extraor- 
dinary, like the birth of the spirit. 

It has been ascertained by multitudes of witnesses, 
by experiments, and by conversations with those who 
have returned from the Summer-Land, that those who 
have demoralizing motives in this life have the greatest 
density on their arrival. In Altolissa, the section where 
many persons go, who, in this' world, lived wholly under 
the influence of selfishness, the population seems about 
as comfortable as general society on earth. Jews still 
believe in the doctrine of their fathers — Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob : the Roman Catholics hold the same views 
they did before death ; and there are other sects in 
Altolissa who think and believe in the same things and 
forms of faith they learned on earth. The sects will 
long continue in their various sympathies and educa- 
tional associations. Of course, progressively and quite 
imperceptibly, this world will grow better and more 



SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 283 

harmonious. Men will intuitively differ less and less 
upon fundamental principles. But in the " details" — 
in the ramifications of thought — this endless variety of 
convictions and affinities will prevail. The foundations 
for countless and various societies in the Summer-Land 
are thus laid and established. Death is largely a cleans- 
ing process, and is the hope of the world, not its point 
of darkness. So beautiful are its siftings, strainings, 
and other processes, that the active causes of passions 
and appetites are dropped and left on earth with the 
gross materiality. So beautiful is the law of Progress, 
that even the active effects that accompany the individual 
cannot be perpetuated (as evils and discords) through- 
out eternity. Why ? Because in the center of the 
universe a positive power reigns, breathing its spirit 
throughout the illimitable spaces; and, and by the slow 
workings of its progressive laws, it cleanses all person- 
alities of their transient imperfections. Only eternal 
GOOD can eternally exist. There is a universal gathering 
of all spirits and angels — not in one place, under the 
blaze of one heavenly central sun, but under the influ- 
ence of musical distributions, of harmonious varieties, 
each adding completeness and happiness to the other. 
Many persons are harmonized in this world when they 
are " born again, 55 and thus lifted out of their low 
motives and consequent imperfections. Hundreds and 
thousands of " things 55 that annoy, vex, and wear the 
spirit, before it is thus born, cease to exert any bad 
effect. Such minds grow sweet, and gentle, and loving, 
under the new life ; before, the same persons were hate- 
ful, discordant, and full of consuming passions. The 
evil woman, who had < ; seven devils" cast out of her, is 



284 MORNING LECTURES. 

an instance of what good can be accomplished t)y 
exchanging bad motives for good ones. How many 
hateful propensities, how many demonic habits, and 
how many unladylike characteristics were cast out of 
her by the psychological power, is left to every one's 
imagination. 

The Catholics believe that each purified soul has 
" died" to the influences of this world. The Shakers 
hold a similar white banner over the redeemed — 
" Come in and dwell with us, put on the plain garb, 
renounce the world's evil habits and cruel customs, 
among other things the evils of marriage and marriage 
itself, and you will be saved ; for thus you die to the 
world." Nuns enter convents under the psychological 
impression that before death they can leave the world 
and its sins, become spiritually sweet and beautiful, and 
acceptable brides for the only Son. There is a 
poetic sublimity in the thought. 

Now there are persons yet in the world who know 
that they can put their crushing heel on the serpent's 
head. They have learned that they can resist striking 
a brother, in passion ; and, what is far better, they can 
resist the passion which would suggest the blow. Strong, 
vigorous, full-blooded men, have conquered the demon 
of passion. Such conquering heroes would not go 
among the Heenans who live in sections of the Summer- 
Land, except as Moral Policemen, as philanthropists, 
but never in the capacity of associates. And yet you 
know that there are men, and women, too, who " hugely 
enjoy" the Heenan style of life ; they like the very 
thought of it, the exciting manifestations of it, and the 
large, beautiful, abandoned animality which it displays 



SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 285 

and indorses. If they enjoy it, how do "they enjoy it? 
Do they by means of their physiological or phrenologic- 
al organs ? They enjoy it by means of those talents 
and faculties which live within physical organs, and 
which the screenage of death does not refine away and 
crush out of the person. 

Therefore there is a great individual work here to 
be done. The ounce of prevention is wanted which 
will make the tons of cure unnecessary. Each person 
can start on the right track before death ; this is the 
best place to get under full sail for a happier harbor. 
To-day is better than to-morrow. The sooner you 
begin, the farther you will find yourself in the path of 
harmonious life. 

This is the doctrine which we are impressed to 
teach. I think all should commence at once to see 
what can be done toward preparing for a better, 
sweeter screenage at death, and to insure a beautiful 
entrance into superior societies. No one can hurt the 
Infinite Father nor the Infinite Mother — you can per- 
manently injure only yourself. This being the truth, 
we have but to proclaim, " Repent ye, for the kingdom 
of heaven is" — next door, just beyond, on the other 
side of the death-screen, through which each must 
sooner or later pass. How many persons will feel, 
after attaining the elevation of self-control, that they 
have begun anew ! But how many cross, sour counte- 
nances, there will be while going through the trial of 
trying to be good. If Nicodemus could have under- 
stood that to be " born of water" was a natural and 
indispensable forerunner of being " born of the spirit/' 
he would have first given attention to the correction 



286 MORNING LECTURES. 

of his personal habits and physical appetites. Thus he 
would have had more harmonious, more sweet, and 
more beautiful bodily sensations. He would have 
become a better neighbor and a truer Governor in 
Israel, a more agreeable companion ; and there would 
have been a cheerful, buoyant, juvenile flow of light, 
joy, and peace, within his lifted spirit ; in short, he 
would have soon experienced the difference between a 
son of God and a son of Belial. 

I know it is a hard doctrine to preach, that now is 
" the accepted time." But this death-screen, which 
hangs before us, is as certain to fix upon each the 
effects of habits and mental conditions as that to-morrow 
will be the natural result of the causes and conditions 
of to-day. Each person can in this world select his 
associations after death. It is, therefore, important 
to get a passport to harmonious central societies in the 
Summer-Land. You should feel no enmity toward any 
human being, however much you have been injured. 
The lion and the lamb lie down together only within 
the purified human spirit. The hidden, cave-like cere- 
bellum, the back-brain, is a den full of untamed animals. 
Spiritual Truth is the only conqueror that can enter 
and still the passions, tame them to peace, and hold 
them in abeyance until the outward disturbance is gone. 
Motives, when high, lift up the soul, which is thus pre- 
pared to be a better neighbor and more successful in 
all the genuine enterprises of present life. 

All true progress brings an immediate and glorious 
satisfaction. We discourse upon " life arid immor- 
tality," not because it is a spiritual fact, but because it 
is the foundation and inspiration of immediate personal 



SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 287 

improvements. It stimulates us to beautiful effort, and 
causes us to teach practical reforms. We can bring 
innumerable tests and mathematical evidences that these 
things, which we relate with respect to the other 
sphere, are true ; but time will supply you with all 
necessary testimonies ; many of them you have already 
heard, many of them you know by heart, and ask for 
nothing more. Now, therefore, the time has come for 
each to step upon the solid rock of Truth — of eternal 
principles — which will surely stand, while the spirit 
makes substantial progress toward higher and more 
beautiful societies which blossom beyond the stars. 



POVERTY AND RICHES, 



" All is the gift of industry ; whate'er 
Exalts, embellishes, and renders life 
Delightful." " More precious 
Than gold are the treasures 
And rewards of wisdom." 

The outward body exerts an imperious mastery over 
the will, affections, and inclinations. In consequence 
of this imperious dictation, growing out of the physio- 
logical and phrenological organization, the mind finds 
itself electing motives in the place of ideals, and pursuing 
the object of such motives with all the instruments at 
its command. Persons therefore, as a result of their 
organization, adopt and foster habits which they would 
not, if the congress of all the faculties were consulted. 
When there is lobbying behind the ears, caucus meetings 
on the sides of the head, political legerdemain, wire- 
pulling, log-rolling around the basilar faculties of the 
mind, then the person is carried with the wild impul- 
sive energy of youth, to consummate an object not 
worthy the whole character. It was an election of only 
a portion of the congress of the faculties ; a minority 
report. The majority report is not heeded, scarcely 
received, until the person has arrived at a point far 
beyond the meridian of human life. The traveler sits 



POVERTY AND RICHES. 289 

down and thinks over the misfortunes and successes of 
this journey. Then, possibly, some religious question 
is broached by the spirit to itself. Or, he takes up a 
newspaper and reads that the celebrated revivalist from 
England will preach to sinners at Hail this even- 
ing. The traveler goes there, having no object but 
pastime and curiosity, and he listens. He finds that 
the preacher is addressing a class of faculties which 
have for years regularly whispered "religion" to him 
through the interstices and crevices, meditations and 
intuitions of his experience. The speaker's descriptive 
appeal is so entirely suitable to his own private and 
never-before expressed convictions and emotions and 
impulses, that he takes all the rest for granted. It 
matters not what the preacher's creed may be ; the 
listener does not stop to consider. He feels for the first 
time in his life that " religion is the chief concern of 
mortals here below," and instantly yields. Down he 
goes into the valley of humiliation, on knees unaccus- 
tomed to bending before any religious idol, and bows 
his head in veneration to his God. After the conversion 
is perfected, he rises in class-meeting and reports a 
long series of sins ; tells what the good Lord has 
done for him ; that he has at last taken a position 
through the grace of the Lamb of God ; that all his past 
life has been a mistake and a sham, and that henceforth 
all his life shall become new. He thinks nothing about 
the theology of his religion. A convert seldom knows 
anything about the creed of his church. No convert has 
had any real conception of the goblin doctrines taught 
by the preacher who just converted him. The experi- 
ence of conversion is a serious internal experience, a 
13 



290 MORNING LECTURES. 

report from the superior faculties that the inferior facul- 
ties have been log-rolling and wire-pulling and having 
their own evil way for years. A variety of unworthy 
objects have been pursued, and the person has employed 
unworthy instruments for the accomplishment of those 
objects. The conversion was brought on by the psycho- 
logy of the pulpit, which impressed the sincere convic- 
tion upon the listening mind that its life was an insult 
to the firmament of the superior faculties. Such a mind 
gains his soul, perhaps, while he loses the whole world. 

The ambitious person does not want money, but 
rather power, though money subserves his object. The 
vain person does not want either money or power, but 
admiration, and money and power only so far as they 
contribute to securing the largest amount of admiration. 
Only the passionate acquisitive mind seeks money for 
money's sake. The mind possesses its object by the 
automatic elections of the lower faculties. They clamor 
and shout through the galleries of the interior legisla- 
ture. They drown the voices of the respected, venera- 
ble powers ; the most wise are the deepest, and the last 
to speak the words of protest. Those most cultured in 
spirit wait until the noise and tumult of inferior powers 
are allayed ; then they rise in their seats in the sanc- 
tuary of the soul and announce the claims of justice and 
liberty and truth and virtue. St. Augustine, Fenelon, 
Jesus and others, who have spoken and written from 
their higher faculties, echo just what has been uttered 
from the inner chambers of the temple of every true 
mind. 

The conviction in the religious world is, that great 
riches are identical with great wickedness. Such is the 



POVERTY AND RICHES. 291 

accepted theory, and yet the religious world is walking 
in the footsteps of Mammon. You know that Mammon 
sits in the gates of the temples of commerce and dictates 
the maxims of trade, saying " Get all thou canst, and 
give as little as possible ; so that thy neighbor may fail 
and thou be successful upon his ruin. 5 ' Talk about 
" practical Christianity" in this state of society ! Talk 
about bringing the kingdom of heaven on earth by 
prayer, or precept, or example ! Men are moved not 
by their higher inclinations and inspirations, but by the 
imperious automatic election of their most sensitive 
faculties. They are full of the force and fierceness of 
wild animals ; to them the locomotive is a savage grati- 
fication, and the terrible earthquake a thrilling delight. 
No wonder that Dante, Milton, and Pollock, find read- 
ers throughout the world. Their most thrilling descrip- 
tions of infernal spheres are gratifying to the basilar 
faculties. The back of the head swells and the neck 
throbs. Power meets and welcomes power with luxu- 
rious embrace. It is like the nuptial meeting of mighty 
forces in the physical world. Thus electricity and mag- 
netism meet in their own appointed way — each rushing 
into the other's embrace, with terrible earnestness and 
increasing frequency, bringing forth new elements, new 
powers and new principles, developing new centers of 
energy for new forms and manifestations of matter. So 
man's faculties draw into themselves their own proper 
foods and drinks. In the lower states of civilization 
their appetite is rapacious and fierce — blood, the fires 
of passion, and savage sports are its bread and wine. 

Agar in his prayer, said, " Give me neither poverty 
nor riches." What is the golden mean of virtue ? If 



292 MORNING LECTURES. 

I have riches and great abundance, I shall be over-fed 
and too well clothed. I shall feel indolent, proud, and 
luxurious. I shall lean back in my easy chair and say, 
" Who can tell me what truth is ? The Lord — who is 
he?" I shall be too comfortable and superficially inde- 
pendent. let me not travel so far into the forest of 
evil and despair. He says, " Give me not riches." 
Well, then, why not give him poverty? Because he 
may thereby lose his self-respect, steal from his neigh- 
bor, and take in vain the name of all holy and beautiful 
things. Agar's prayer suggests the glorious independ- 
ence that is found midway between extreme poverty and 
exceeding riches. There is no evil in having riches, but 
in fostering a love for it in blinding excess. Neither is 
there evil in having poverty, in being decently and 
honorably poor ; but evil consists in the excesses of 
squalor in which many spend their lives. Balance is 
the basis of harmony. It is like the golden belt between 
the equator and the polar regions, where the greatest 
fertility and industry are possible and practicable — a 
band of land and water between the two extremes — so 
is the pleasant, independent, comfortable place between 
excessive poverty and extravagant riches. 

This is the gospel of all beautiful relations. Dis- 
ease, one extreme, is not attractive. No one's venera- 
tion is excited by bodily discord. Sympathy and pity 
(which hold always a little of the element of contempt) 
are excited by disease. You may have rich pity and 
beautiful sympathy for the afflicted. If your sympathies 
for the suffering flow from a large love-fountain, and if 
at the same moment your magnetic powers are fully 
awakened and active, then you are to the afflicted one a 



POVERTY AND RICHES. 293 

\ 

perfect magnetic savior. To such an one you can say, 
" I will, be thou healed/" And the condition of cure 
is established. Because your will is not merely an 
intention in such a case; it is the uprising of the healing 
virtue from the life-fountain, the springing of divine 
energy from the heart of the spirit; which, showering 
down and refreshing the soul-aura of the sick one, fills 
the exhausted nerves, refreshes the impoverished blood, 
and balances forces long since spent or over- worn ; and 
so a sweet rejuvenation and the conditions of pure 
health come to you from the one whom you should name 
a " Savior." 

But suppose a person treats your case by the exer- 
cise of mere will, and by magnetism coming from the 
psychological power of ordinary intention, then all 
you will receive is metallic or animal heat. It is nothing 
but the breathings of Satan. (Of course, I use this hate- 
ful word in a symbolic sense.) Whatever is simply 
galvanic or willful, coming from the decomposition of 
metals or from the clash and clank of the animal brain, 
is degrading to the spiritual sensibilities. Everything 
which intends forcibly to assail the private rights and 
intentions of another person, is freighted with a subtile 
poison. It defrauds you of personality, and to that 
extent it is your enemy. The best friend is he who 
gives you to yourself. A true friend does not throw 
any power over you, to circumscribe or limit the natural 
expression and perfect expansion of the elements and 
attributes of your being, although he may caution, 
counsel, and develop the beauty and the might ot Truth 
before you. 

Disease, I repeat, is not attractive. Neither is 



294 MORNING LECTURES. 

poverty. It is said that the poor shall always be with 
us. I do not wonder that the ancients thought so. 
Anything which flows far down in the channels of expe- 
rience, which is in the earth beneath your feet, which 
compels you to live down where crude forces move, is 
an attack upon the selfish dictates of your self-esteem 
and pride. The position itself is poverty. The lesson 
is, that machinery, not human hands, must go down and 
do the dirty work of the world. In this manner all 
true needs will be supplied, and all true desires pro- 
vided with their fullest gratification. 

Riches, on the other hand, are attractive to all 
men. There is no disputing this obvious fact. The 
human mind goes toward riches as inevitably and gladly 
as the birds spring from earth into the blue space in 
which they are at home. It is the power and privileges 
of wealth which the mind craves. It is similar to what 
Hannibal longed for when he was crossing the mount- 
ains; something that would soften and melt the solid 
substances which opposed his march and his purposes. 
Every man is a Hannibal on the question of riches. 
Man has by inheritance the aggressive elements of the 
great Napoleon. He wants to be pecuniarily independ- 
ent, and he will be monarch over the domain of poverty; 
he must be emperor in the field of ownership, or he 
makes war upon his neighbors. This super-power — this 
magnificent feeling of personal monarchy — is what each 
soul wants. Autocracy is the perfect and entire eman- 
cipation of the individual. The autocrat is a self- 
centered governor. Every person wants to be a 
self-regulated and rich autocrat. America, in political 
organization, is not yet up to this conception ; and the 



POVERTY AND RICHES. 295 

church is even a greater stumbling-block than the politi- 
cal combinations. It says, "Thus far and no farther. 
You shall not become independent of restrictions ; you 
shall obey the laws of these religious organizations.'' 
Order implies organization, and organization necessi- 
tates discipline, and the authority of discipline must not 
be questioned. How can you induce bigots of this stripe 
to investigate a new truth? You even shrink from 
asking them to look at your positive facts. 

Autocracy is the rich and comfortable democracy of 
the human mind. This view of riches is creeping into 
and through all parts of the human imagination.. 
Money brings anxiety, pride, and power ; and these 
bring admiration for a time. Mammon is more wor- 
shiped to-day than are the Father and Mother of the 
everlasting universe. Mammon is not worshiped with 
genuine spiritual veneration ; yet he is followed and 
obeyed as is no other leader in the round world. He 
dictates all measures to the ministers of both Church 
and State. He is in the path of every nation. Golden 
hammers have arisen over the firmament of the Ameri- 
can people ; and it seems as though great authorities 
are to be subverted and large capitalists crushed in the 
twinkling of an eye. It is a great trial that the world 
is passing through. During the years of these national 
travails and trials, new ideas of Progress will take root 
deeply, will grow up vast and mighty, and will spread 
out their thickly-woven branches through and over all 
the institutions of both Church and State. Legislators 
in the capitalsand ministers in the pulpits, and men who 
are masters of the press, and those who stand upon the 
rostrum, will rise up as so many redeemed angels of 



296 MORNING LECTURES. 

light, and there will be a unity of thought and a unity 
of purpose more complete and spontaneous than was 
ever before seen. Like a spiritual Aurora Borealis, it 
will give to mankind a world of light and joy, and a 
roseate and a golden opulence to the whole horizon 
and firmament of human history. 

As men do not love disease, so they do not love 
poverty. Health is richly attractive; even so are 
riches. No man can say that he hates just and whole- 
some wealth. He may hate the misapplication of riches. 
He hates acquisitiveness, penuriousness and miserly 
covetousness. He hates the evils of wealth ; he does 
not hate the riches. 

It is the destiny of all men to become rich. Man- 
kind have no business to be everlastingly sick and ever- 
lastingly poor. All men will become ashamed of it, 
for every one has the power to help himself out of both 
disease and poverty. This shame will come with a 
larger inward growth. The time is coming when men 
will see that their interests are co-ordinate and co- 
operative. Men who have only muscle are brothers to 
those who have only brain. Skill, however, is in the 
ascendant. One true Idea in one master mind sets a 
thousand men at work, because there are thousands of 
men who have millions of muscles, but scarcely one 
clear idea. 

Why is it that our Yankee girls, as they are called, 
cannot be found at work in basements ? They labor in our 
factories only just long enough to get a couple of beautiful 
rooms filled with more beautiful furniture, a wardrobe 
abundantly supplied, and two hundred dollars laid away 
in the Savings Bank. They very soon get married, 



POVERTY 1ND RICHES. 2P7 

leave the factories, and settle down in happy homes. 
Then only the Yankee husbands go to the factories ; 
the young women, their wives, remain in the homes 
their own industry has purchased. The American female 
mind will not long dwell in the presence of wheels and 
pulleys and spindles. It will not stoop many times to 
scrub your floors; it will not garnish up and put your 
house in order; for it is independent, artistic, and in- 
ventive, and cannot be repressed nor subjected. 

Anglo Saxon blood is nearly buried; but the 
" American blood" is fast coming into active life. The 
old branches of the Saxon family will, one of these days, 
come in embattled^onflict with the new-born flood of 
America. When that time comes, the empires of Europe 
will crumble and tumble forever, and political freedom 
will prevail. The American blood is the best channel 
for the introduction and widest distribution of advan- 
tages, opportunities, and national wealth. Where does 
the world get its gold in the greatest abundance ? From 
the valley of the Nile? From the Libyan mountains 
west of the valley, or the Arabians to the east, or from 
the Orkney hills of Scotland ? Does it come from the 
great mountains of the far South ? No. The Eldora- 
dos, and Colorados, the shining placers and auriferous 
leads, the sparkling channels and gorges, full of mag- 
netic particles, which draw muscle and not skill, are 
found in the bosom of America. Skill remains in the 
cities: it works through the machinery of commerce; 
it sinks the deep shafts, sends down great buckets into 
golden wells, and draws up millions of the precious 
metal. Vast territories on the Pacific side of the con- 
tinent are destined to furnish the world with the metal 
13* 



298 MORNING LECTURES. 

which, like all other kinds of material riches, will take 
unto itself wings and fly out of sight and out of mind. 
In after years it will fly back and come down heavier 
than lead, and become worthless except for useful tools 
and personal ornaments. Gold exists in great abund- 
ance. Every little child can have a gold watch and a 
gold breast-pin and a gold finger-ring. The metal will 
become popular and correspondingly cheap. Let com- 
merce and the mercantile power bow to the god, Mam- 
mon, who grimly sits in the gates of trade and holds 
the scepter, and is the exactor of this tribute of adora- 
tion — a sacrifice for which all men will in the future be 
unutterably ashamed. I have take^j great precautions 
not to invest largely in metals. I have made invest- 
ments in health — a form of riches far above the metals, 
and one unsearchable and unattainable to those who 
have not obeyed the laws of their existence. Miners 
and merchants and ministers are bowing and searching 
down in the bowels of the earth. They look down- 
wards for the means of attaining their miserable ter- 
restrial objects. What is it all for? Do you not 
suppose the time will come when the silver and golden 
metals will take a very inferior position in your mind ? 
Suppose between this'and next Sunday one of you should 
depart for the Summer-Land. Of what value would be 
all this fret and foam about the metals of the mineral 
world? Metals are not riches. They do not even 
represent riches ; they only represent the materiality 
and dross-mindedness of the world of commerce. 

Labor and skill alone bring riches. Skill is in the 
ascendant, and first exhibits itself through science. 
What is science ? It is a true knowledge of facts and 



FOVERTY AND RICHES. 299 

forces, of ponderable substances and the visible organs. 
The next manifestation of skill, is art — a true knowledge 
of how to control forces, organs, and substances. Art 
is the control of those powers of which science gives 
you a true knowledge. Skill, therefore, is the master. 
The man of mere muscle cannot contend with the man 
of mind. The ignorant giant might as well give up 
before he begins the battle. The conflict in the world 
to-day between the poor and the rich, is, when ana- 
lyzed, a battle between skill and muscle, or bones and 
brains. The poor man's salvation is alone possible 
through his mind. 

The American blood is already making these demands 
and these manifestations. The poor man is kept down 
because of two things : first, he has not the money by 
which he can " take advantage" of conditions and cir- 
cumstances about him ; second, and first of all, he has 
not, as a general rule, the skill by which, if he had suf- 
ficient money, he might make himself " master of the 
situation." Mechanics and other working men, not 
American, are generally, of this stamp. In the old 
countries poor men and women seldom get property. 
American poor men and women, on the other hand, fre- 
quently become rich and masters of their position. I 
begin to see glimmerings of an industrial pathway by 
which all the poor of the country are to become pos- 
sessed of homes and acres of their own, so that they 
shall grow neither rich nor poor, but even more inde- 
pendent. But this prospect does not open for those 
whose blood is not legitimately progressive. Muscle and 
breast and digestion and brains and the automatic ener- 
gies will obey the skill and ideas of those who have the 



300 MORNING LECTURES. 

inspiration and positive intelligence. Myriads in the 
old countries are to be benefited by the exaltation of 
minds that are skilled and rich in divine ideas. The 
churches do not see any such prospect. A man standing 
in his pulpit, seeing in one of the front pews a person 
whose business is that of wine-selling, or who gets all 
his money by " taking advantage'' of the rise of the 
markets in flour and in necessary staples, upon which 
" the poor" must pay the combined profits and the largest 
percentage, does not dare say to that man that he is not 
as righteous as the hypocritical righteousness of the 
Scribes and Pharisees. Because that rich wine-dealer 
and stock-jobber and popular swindler holds communion 
with the one god which the minister is compelled to 
acknowledge and worship, Mammon ! Tinseled rheto- 
ric is subject to the command of metal. If the minister, 
in a moment of moral bravery, should denounce the sins 
of the pew-holders, he is very soon visited by a com- 
mittee, who inform him that he is " void of ideality ; 
that. he is not poetical enough; that the congregation 
wants a preacher who is more refined and impersonal 
in his conversation, more ecstatic in his style of sermon- 
izing, and not so direct and vulgar in his references to 
supporters of God's holy word," &c. And the com- 
mittee very soon hear that there is a minister for sale. 
Such a preacher is sent for. He puts his ear to the 
mouth of Mammon, and the metallic god whispers " a 
high calling ;" and he listens all over ; he accepts the 
congregation in obedience to the "call," and you 
know that hymns, and prayers, and sermons always go 
just where the minister goes ; and the minister goes just 
where the implacable metal-and-greenback gods bid 



POVERTY AND RICHES. 301 

him, even in spite of himself. Then do you suppose that 
the speculator and the stock-gambler, who lives and 
fattens upon others' misfortunes, will be talked to from 
the pulpit? Will he be told that his apparent right- 
eousness is nothing ? Dare the minister tell him that 
without sacrifices, and without integral virtues, he can- 
not enter into the kingdom of harmony? Never ! And 
the speculators' wives will be delighted. They will 
say, " What a delightful change ! Why, the minister 
we had last year was such a coarse and vulgar person ! 
He would talk his notions 6 right out/ and preach all 
sorts of reforms. He spoke his mind on every-day 
6 religion/ and talked ' polities' right out in meeting. 
Now, how delightful ! We have a gentleman in the 
pulpit who is cultivated and poetical ; he has ideas, 
and never interferes with every-day matters." 

It is the misdirection of the love of wealth which 
we are called upon to denounce. All men should and 
shall desire to have homes and property and position. 
It is sad to behold a person so far down in the deep 
valley of disappointment, that he does not put forth 
adequate exertions to make for himself a home, if it be 
but twenty feet square and one story high, with only a 
place overhead for boxes and trunks. Uncultivated 
land all over this country is calling for men and women. 
The unworked fields of America put forth thickly- 
matted vegetation, saying, " See what I could do, it" you 
would only bring to me your hoes, your plows, your 
implements of industry. I will bring you great harvests. 
Open me deeply, let me breathe, then give me the germs. 
You have but to sft in the door afterward, and under 
your own vine and fig-tree, and behold the blossoming 



302 MORNING LECTURES. 

of the material abundance with which I will bless you." 
Behold the prairies of the West ! Gardens are they 
that could support the entire population of the globe, 
if we but give to them our skill and our working- 
muscles. 

Riches are inevitable. Mankind will not remain 
poor. If they do, they are sinners. America is remarka- 
ble for her tendency and her power to equalize wealth 
and distribute knowledge. Here fierce blasts topple 
down steeples that are too lofty. A farmer may stack 
and store large quantities of grain for the market. 
Some great tornado may destroy his property in a single 
afternoon. That is what the country prophesies as pos- 
sible and certain in all great accumulations of wealth. 
John Jacob Astor's property will very soon melt out of 
his possession. Let the owning and watching mind 
depart, and forthwith the decomposing process com- 
mences. Here is no primogeniture. The property of 
the family does not descend to the eldest son. Some- 
times, instead, the greatest financial misfortunes descend 
to the first child. Here is disintegration and diffusion. 
Why, the climate itself is full of democracy. Property 
concentration in America is possible only for three- 
quarters of a century. Some few New England fami- 
lies are opulent, and have been ever since the country 
star-ted. But the young men and the war are now 
making those properties fly to the four winds. The 
sons of once rich parents are looking about for business, 
to prevent their entire impoverishment. They descend 
from families once aristocratic in wealth, but in mind and 
spirit they were very poor and valueless to the world. 

Now, mind is taking a lofty position that money can 



POVERTY AND RICHES. 303 

never reach. Skill, in the ascendant, indicates mind. 
The superior faculties are declaring their aristocracy. 
This declaration will show itself in the growing inde- 
pendence of our working men and women. They will 
accumulate property. They cannot help it. Spiritual 
riches, however, will soonest save all from poverty both 
in matter and in mind. Such riches develop the supe- 
rior powers, by which man puts down diseases and all 
forms of poverty in his spirit. Ideas, at last, will be 
the Saviors of the world. But " ideas" are considered 
vague. Are they ? Look at their incarnations. What 
is a locomotive, a factory, the invention of the sewing 
machine, or a watch, but the incarnation of ideas ? Ideas 
antedate all literature, art and science. Ideas will 
change and revolutionize the world. Poverty, in the 
physical body and in the world's circumstances, will be 
overcome and destroyed. Spiritual riches are imper- 
sonal ideas. Present physical life is a struggle for 
bread — a battle of selfishness from which very few 
persons come off with clean hands and a pure heart. 
Society is full of worn and weary workers for the daily 
wants of their bodies and families. 

It is not always to be so. The moment a man gets 
a true education with an Idea, in itself clear and capa- 
ble of being transmitted to a fellow, that moment he 
takes precedence in the field, work-shop, or factory. He 
is foreman, an assistant on the side of government ; his 
wages are increased, and he is thereby put on the way 
to something better. For it is the American's ambition 
to acquire, not money, but mind ; ideas, instead of gold 
medals and personal luxury. I would rather have my 
invisible brain with its boney- casket than the wealth of 



304 MORNING LECTURES. 

the wealthiest man. Who would not ? If a man has a 
true education, and a brain-power adequate to the 
wheeling of circumstances into line with his intentions, 
the wealth of the rich and idle man, who possibly has 
no brain-power, will melt into his hands. Truly edu- 
cated men will become rich through the country ; and 
thus every poor man, through his ideas and his ceaseless 
industry, will have a home and a garden. The world 
is on its way to vast accumulations of spiritual riches, 
not from any special individual intention, but from the 
direct election and development of its innate constitu- 
tional powers. 

Let no one, however, expect that people will catch 
an idea to-day and act upon it to-morrow. To-morrow 
people will manifest their characteristics and disposi- 
tions according to their circumstances. They will act 
from their long-accustomed habits and ruling inclina- 
tions. Mankind do not rapidly change. They will not 
be quickiy impressed and swayed by great ideas. The 
most powerful principles will give but a momentary 
inspiration and direction to the general mind. The 
dominating characteristics of the people will be those 
which spring from their organic conformation, modified 
by passing inclinations and swayed by fleeting circum- 
stances, and all more or less independent of the indi- 
vidual wish or will. 

Suppose your superior faculties should come down 
out of their heavens and touch your internal being, 
awaken your divinest and sweetest sensations, and bid 
your spiritual nature to yield to holier emotions. What 
would then occur ? " A voice from heaven" means a 
voice from the interior of spirit. It is a divine feeling, 



POVERTY AND RICHES. 305 

also, which the inhabitants of the Summer-Land will in 
your heart increase with aerial music and songs of joy 
and anthems of deathless gratitude. The upper and 
higher faculties speak in silvery tones to that which 
is ordinary, earthly, and external in you, saying, 
" Rise ! Live worthier ! Be thou whole, healthy, rich, 
happy!" 

Mankind are on the straight road to ultimate suc- 
cess. The harmonfal era is coming through this 
beautiful nuptial relation, which will, at the right hour 
in history, be formed between the upper faculties in 
men's minds and their ordinary powers and propensities 
of externalism and selfishness, which to-day are highest 
in authoritative power, dictating the movements and 
constructing the mechanism of Church and State. The 
superior nature in man, the kingdom of heaven, is gain- 
ing the ascendency. Its methods and its resources will 
be mankind's true Saviors. 

There is always greater "joy in heaven" over one 
person so lifted and converted than over a thousand 
who have walked along sweetly and noiselessly through 
life. Moderate saints are moderate sinners. They are 
neither rich nor poor, neither benevolent nor penurious, 
but live unobtrusively and indifferently in an even 
way — letting their " moderation be known unto all 
men" — exciting neither joy nor sympathy among the 
philanthropic in the Summer-Land. But one of those 
hard-headed, hard-hearted, thick-skinned sinners, who 
has been induced to listen to and obey the voice of the 
higher powers, who has substantially resolved to live 
henceforth in the sanctuary of his immortal spirit, who 
has given evidence that he will be a better, a wiser, a 



306 MORNING LECTURES. 

larger, and a more truly rich man — such an one, when 
freed from his bad habits and earthliness, kindles grand 
joy in the heavens. 

The era of harmony, which is to come, will consist 
in the coming together of the powers between the lower 
and the highest in man's nature. Such a race will come 
out of America's blood. They will conquer the soil, 
will subdue the climate, will destroy disease, will rise 
above the metals, will overthrow all known standards 
of wealth, and will arrange themselves in harmonial 
brotherhoods, and will live as they live who inhabit the 
higher mansions in the Father's house.- 

The soil of the globe is in a very undeveloped and 
low state.* Its inexhaustible resources have not yet 
declared themselves to the eyes and skill of the wisest 
men. Science has not yet probed the recesses of visible 
matter. Religion has done nothing more than to say, 
"The coming of the kingdom of heaven is a subject of 
prayer." We affirm that it will become a fact when 
mankind pray hard enough in deeds. Religion has 
soothed you in your struggles. It has essayed to make 
you feel satisfied with bereavements. It attends your 
death-beds. It goes with you to your grave-yards. 
And it has made light with faith the dark and dreary 
walks of the world. Religion, stripped of its theology, 
has had in it much for mankind in all these things. But 
it has not lifted you to the heart of Mother Nature. It 
has not turned you out into the fields of progressive 
truth. It has not shown you "the unsearchable riches'' 
of the physical world, which came out from the unsearcha- 
ble opulence of the spiritual. But true religion will be 
the El Dorado of the new world. It will be a Colorado 



POVERTY AND RICHES. 307 

far more spacious and grand than the golden mountains 
of the world. Those who iove most and wisest, will 
have the largest and richest investments. Such riches 
never fly away. 

" Ideas" will preside over this conjugal blending of 
the superior with the inferior in the mind. Wealth is 
natural and accessible to all. Economies and simplici- 
ties in dress and in foods will be consequences of the 
new birth. Simplicity of habits at the table will increase 
your health income. You will be astonished, when you 
attain to the life-hights of the new birth, how inde- 
pendent you are by nature of these external things 
which give you such anxiety and such selfish distress, 
and for the possession of which you must think and 
sweat and labor from Monday morning till Saturday 
night. Misled and miseducated, by the false habits 
and customs of the world, ladies will search through 
New York to find a certain ribbon, for which they will 
freely spend the entire day ; but the same ladies would 
not be induced to do one hour's needle-work for the 
amelioration of some suffering person in poverty. Mis- 
educated ladies are not the intentional defrauders of 
other people's right and riches, but are the victims and 
exponents of a false social start in the world. 

. The only substantial riches are spiritual ; all out- 
ward wealth is convenient and transient. It is not 
necessary to bedeck the walls of an artist who lives in 
ideas. Who thinks, when in the presence of angels, that 
his floor is not carpeted ? I used to think that a stu- 
dio for high contemplations must be beautifully 
decorated and visibly attractive; that my elegant 
writing-desk must have a beautiful blue silk velvet 



308 MORNING LECTURES. 

cover on which I might write these spiritual thoughts ; 
and that the pictures on the wall must be high-toned 
and very suggestive. I then thought that many beauti- 
ful things in my room were indispensably necessary to 
induce a state of mind appropriate to these inward 
truths and more beautiful revealments. But one day I 
suddenly awoke to the conception that these externals 
were parts of my enthralled feelings. When I entered 
into the interior for association with higher things, 
when in communion with principles and ideas, or with 
the beauties and glories and blissfulness of the Summer- 
Land, when contemplating the beatitudes of the state 
future to man, I never thought of or felt these outward 
things. My room at such times was never seen; nor 
was my body necessary to me ; neither did I realize 
my circumstances. I was in communication with the 
spheres of real life, and they with me; we had formed a 
true nuptial relation. When out of that condition, the 
mastery of place and objects was perfect over my exter- 
nal ; indeed I could scarcely write my investigations 
unless I was snugly seated in my beautiful furnished 
room. At length I said, " This slavery will not do ! A 
man with ideas must be free as are the sons of God." 
I resolved upon a completer and higher education. I 
lived at the time in Hartford. I went through a silent 
street to the store of a periodical dealer. In the back 
room of this establishment I found barrels and casks 
and bundles of dirty paper, and repulsive piles of 
yellow-covered novels, and all sorts of things in dire 
confusion, dirt and disorder being in extravagant 
abundance. I seated myself and deliberately made up 
my mind that I would go into " the presence of divine 



POVERTY AND RICHES. 309 

ideas" then and there ; for I had awakened to the fact 
that I was dependent upon pictures and furniture and 
carpets for my harmony and tranquillity. I worked 
every day for three full weeks, and in that dirty place 
every day I entered into the presence of riches that 
are unsearchable and permanent. I did it in the rear 
of a store frequently filled with people, hearing the 
voices of purchasers, talking and bartering. Customers 
every day receded until they ceased out of my thoughts, 
and the store also vanished, and with it all the world's 
externals. Then carpets of imperishable texture and 
pictures of immortal beauty were mine — in a word, I 
passed from poverty into the possession of eternal 
riches. 



THE OBJECT OF LIFE, 



"Let each man think himself an act of God, 
His mind a thought, his life a breath of God ; 
And let each try, by great thoughts and good deeds, 
To show the most of heaven he hath in him." 

The other day a friend who has listened to this course 
of lectures, remarked to me, " It seems to me that you 
always leave off in the middle of your subject. There 
is a great deal of introduction, but no completion of the 
subject at the end of your lecture." Yes, I proceed as 
a tree grows — step by step, from its first beginnings 
deliberately onward to fruitage ; and I leave off just 
when you first get a glimpse of the fruit, and begin to 
be hungry for some of it. 

The gentleman who made that remark will discover 
that he will resign his physical organization, at the end 
of this section of his external life, in a manner some- 
what as I cease in my discourse— just at the place where 
thoughts and ideas begin to be interesting and valuable. 
Men usually die when life begins to be full of sweet- 
ness, magnitude, and significance. When, through many 
accidents and sorrows, you have learned the beginnings 
of a rational way to live, then there sounds a signal 
bell telling you that "your work on earth is over." 
Thus I speak on the subject before me — begin and 



THE OBJECT OF LIFE. ' 311 

end, not with the end of a subject, but rather with the 
first sentence in an introductiou. Every theme is sus- 
ceptible of being amplified and lived through ages yet 
to come. You cannot sound to the lowest deep of any 
principle that is infinite, nor reach to its highest pinna- 
cle, though you think and speak upon it every hour 
between the cradle and the coffin. 

The object of life ? The careless skeptic thinks and 
says, " This existence is the result of a fortuitous con- 
course of accidents." Aristotle said, " the fortuitous 
concourse of atoms." The accidental meeting and con- 
fluence of atoms, congregated, making a whole, the 
universe, and having inherent vital powers and conse- 
quential galvanic energies that work everlastingly or 
until they wear out, is the sum of the skeptic's careless 
creed. What does such a skeptic think and say of 
humanity ? He says, men are here by accident. We 
have stumbled out of matter into a temporary organiza- 
tion, into breathing, conscious life, and we shall in like 
manner stumble back again and drop into the chemistry 
of utter extinction. What then ? What is the sad 
conclusion? Why, that the "object of life" is to eat, 
drink, propagate, be merry, and die. 

I am acquainted with refined ladies and talented 
gentlemen who are, or have recentl) T been, in this state 
of mind ; they particularly think and say, « Let us eat, 
drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die." They 
reject the fine Gospel of Epicurus, and, instead, adopt 
the purely sensual interpretation of his grand sentence, 
that " True happiness consists in bodily ease and mental 
tranquillity." Epicurus was not one who debauched 
his appetites and defiled the organs of his body. Pure 



312 . MORNING LECTURES. 

and simple was bis style of life. Music in flavors, music 
in odors, harmony in compounds prepared for the 
stomach, purity in the fluids for drinking, and perfect 
health in all parts of the body, which is the basis of 
tranquillity of mind and repose in the spirit. 

There is another interpretation of the object of life. 
The Assembly's Shorter Catechism gives the dogmatic 
answer to this grand question. I suppose it is natural 
and right that the catechisms and dogmatisms of the 
world should be kept securely in the same cage of creeds. 
They always give the same hideous howl to the soul's 
freest questionings, "What is the chief end of man?" 
You remember the answer — " To glorify God." The 
chief end of untold millions already gone, and of innu- 
merable millions yet to go into the higher spheres, is 
simply to serve and glorify God, a supposed personality, 
and enjoy his presence forever. What does the dic- 
tionary say about " glory" ? The word " glory" has 
two or thee definitions ; one is anything that is bright. 
A bright day is a glorious day. Anything that is 
resplendent and beautiful, is glorious. Thus the object 
or "end" of all these countless myriads of human 
hearts and heads will be one — what ? " To glorify 
God ;" that is to bedazzle his existence, to brighten him 
up, to make him shine — that is the first work, the mid- 
dle work, and the work eternal ! What next ? " To 
enjoy his presence forever." This is the chief object of our 
creation and immortality according to the catechism. 
Who will stand or sit in the front ranks ? Will everybody 
have an equal amount of enjoyment ? If the Christians 
are countless, how can they be all stationed for this 
"glorious" work in one place ? Will there not be some 



THE OBJECT OF LIFE. 313 

vanguards and some rearguards, some safeguards and 
unsafe guards in the midst of the pent-up kingdom ? 
Those who are nearest the throne, would naturally have 
a better chance ;; to enjoy his presence" than those who 
are from the necessity of space farther back. Or, do 
they take turns in coming to the front to see and 
"glorify" and enjoy the Trinity? Is such a life to be 
the basis of your employment throughout eternity? 
Made, as each human soul is, with twelve loving, ener- 
getic, intelligent, immortal attributes — fitted for cease- 
less and variable industry, for art and for science, and 
demanding for their full gratification not less than the 
circle of the whole universe — and yet through the end- 
less ages to live and think and work and sing only to 
brighten up God, and " to enjoy" the radiant smiles 
and gratified approbation of the Trinity! Outrageous, 
imbecile theology ! An insult to the mind of every 
reasonable man ! Our children, thank heaven ! are not 
taught these heathenish doctrines. To rational minds 
the Catechism is like a controversy on the Trinity ; 
nothing but " an oblong blur," a spot on the sun of 
progress in the development of religious ideas. 

Again, suppose we take the definition that to " glo- 
rify God," means to worship and to praise him. Does 
that help it any? Think of a deity whose bump of 
approbation and other selfish organs must be constantly 
stimulated by the speeches and songs of his children, so 
that he may be comfortable and in a happy " frame of 
mind." Glorify God ! Why, a noble human being is su-< 
perior to requiring that service from either his children 
or peers. A true* man is above acclamation or adula- 
tion. He stands upon the sublime inherent indorsement 
14 



314 



MORNING LECTURES. 



of eternal right and truth! What other definition can 
sectarians give to the words, " To glorify God" ? Any 
theological definition will be an insult to your common 
sense, and an outrage upon a true idea of the eternal 
Father-Spirit, who, like the sun, warms and lights all 
with love and wisdom to the ends of the universe. 

There are^spiritually-minded men and women, truly 
religious people, ardent lovers of justice and humanity, 
who feel that there* is nothing better for the sustenance 
and elevation of the soul than the truth of Deity. These 
minds are many times tempted to ask each other, « What 
is the object of life 1" They would " do good,' 5 but the 
" way" does not open with the " will," and they flounder 
in uncertainties. I know a person who persists in 
thinking that woman's highest and only mission consists 
in keeping house, multiplying the race, and obeying her 
husband in all things; and that man's strongest and 
most enduring interest in woman, under the laws of 
nature, is wholly of "the earth, earthy," and so he 
scouts the modern notions of woman's equality and inde- 
pendence. And this man, both a husband and father, 
began life with high hopes and sublime anticipations, 
believing that something heavenly and grand would 
grow out of the reformer's ideal of the holy mission and 
beautiful progress of .woman. Of course, such a man 
was too weak to withstand a few of life's disappoint- 
ments. Others suppose that the best way to answer the 
designs of life is to accumulate riches and to enjoy the 
power and commanding position which wealth gives. 
The Rothchilds and the Asto-rs can give no other reply 
out of their practices and experiences. But the upshot 
of all is disappointment and oppressive cares, with 



THE OBJECT OF LIFE. 315 

nothing but a place to sleep, something to eat, comforta- 
ble clothing, and only such assistance and attentions as 
you receive from those to whom you pay the wages due 
to labor. A few fine souls think Art is the object of life. 
Some say that whatever they feel themselves intel- 
lectually, morally, or passionally drawn toward, is the 
true indication of the object of their existence. I could 
name many other theories and definitions, but you can 
trace them out and analyze them for«yourself. 

Now since, from the mind's constitution, it is certain 
that each nature will act logically from its own tem- 
peraments, it becomes of the utmost importance that its 
convictions of life's object be of the firmest and truest 
character, well founded in science, in thought, in love, 
and in wisdom. Let us, therefore, proceed to ask and 
answer this question from our own standpoint : 

First, Look at the lessons spread out in Nature's 
fields. What do you feel and see and hear ? Do you 
not both feel and see that there is ap/an, and a unitary 
flow and effort, marked out and imaged forth in all 
visible things ? The true inductive philosopher traces 
" design" backward through the apparent to its central 
source. The earnest effort of each true investigator is 
to trace, through the different series of material organi- 
zations, the thought of God inwardly to the center, 
which is the heart of the eternal and infinite. When 
he finds the central Cause, he shouts, " Eureka, Eureka !" 
More wonderful than Aladdin's lamp is the magical 
power of this truth. It kindles up all the central fires 
of creation, fills individual life full of unutterable beauty, 
and clothes all forms of matter and animation with an 
undying significance. The moral world, a subterranean 



316 MORNING LECTURES. 

sphere to which we seldom go, is divided and subdivided 
into beautiful series of groups or compounds. It would 
be useful to describe to you the divine wonders of that 
dark and mysterious chemical world. You would 
become delighted and gloriously at home among the 
elements and their combinations. You should learn 
how beautifully, how entirely in accordance with the 
great principle of harmony, the elements and their com- 
pounds are arranged in the laboratories of matter. 
Series give rise to groups, groups develop combinations 
expressing wholeness, and that "wholeness" constituting 
the entire mineral kingdom. All this arrangement of 
matter means something. The materialist asks, " Cui 
bono V 9 Wants to know " what for and what good V 9 
He asks this wondrous world beneath the soil, and it 
points him in silence to the revelations of the wonderful 
worlds above. 

Come to the vegetable and floral worlds. Ask our 
horticulturists, and our pomologists, and our botanists ; 
ask those who daily and yearly associate with the varie- 
ties of beautiful plants and trees and flowers, who 
cultivate berries — ask them, for they are always enthu- 
siastic and glad to be questioned concerning their pets. 
You never knew a man, a woman, or a child that had 
come in pure and full contact with the spirit of Deity 
in the flower-kingdom, but would speak of it with enkin- 
dling enthusiasm, (which means, " God in the heart,") 
speaking to and warming the loving and beloved flower, 
the two kissing and embracing, as life meets life in the 
angel world. But when the hard materialist looks upon 
all this beautiful kingdom spread out in the world, he 
asks, "Cui bono ?" " what good?" Every intelligent 



THE OBJECT OP LIFE. 317 

human being should ask this question about the glori- 
ous physical world, but not without a profound and 
reverent desire to obtain the true answer. 

Next we come to the organic world ; out of the 
simple into the compound, and animated. Look at the 
finely shaded gradations in this beautiful animal world. 
Look at the fishes and reptiles, the families of birds, the 
varieties of marsupials, the many branches of the mam- 
malia, the different tribes of quadrumana, the strange 
half-human form and features of bi-raana, and lastly 
the different races of man. What does all this mean ? 
It means that Jacob's ladder had an origin long before 
the advent of human organization. Its lowest round 
began way down in the rude fish-world, on which the 
angels of progress both descended and ascended through 
all the higher forms of matter. I do not wonder that 
true philosophers are enthusiasts. I wonder not that 
Professor Youmans, and Agassiz of Cambridge, and 
such men as Liebig, look as though they had roses 
blossoming in their cheeks when they tell the people 
about these beautiful manifestations of the Divine. 
Professor Mitchell, who has attained a higher observa- 
tory than when he lived in Cincinnati, who laid down 
his body while working for the grand old flag in South 
Carolina, can now look out into the pure blue and con- 
template the stars. He now sees farther, deeper, and 
with infinitely more intellectual and spiritual satisfac- 
tion. And what does he see ? What do the astrono- 
mers, Galilleo, Newton, Humboldt, and all such who 
have eternal homes in the Summer-Land, see? They 
see unutterably more than mankind can find in the 
mineral and vegetable and animal. They enjoy the 



\ 



318 MORNING LECTURES. 

life of the mathematical, geometrical, organizational 
and harmonious. Look at the planets. They are sown 
in space, and they seem to grow broadcast over the 
sky. The series are not sharply defined and definite. 
The varieties of planets are not perfectly visible, nor 
do they seem to be entirely mathematical in their 
arrangement. But the higher astronomers see better. 
The planets are capable of divergence. They have 
deliberations and aberrations. The series are, neverthe- 
less, perfectly geometrical and mathematical. Ascend 
to the sublime palace of the upper universe, in which 
blazing planets, night and day, more "glorify God" 
than can all the prayers of innumerable millions. They 
are rigidly and immutably mathematical, geometrical, 
and perfect in the arrangement of groups and series, 
which in the combination constitutes a planetary sys- 
tem. This perfect system never varies from its vitalic 
laws. It never has a tangential development; there is 
never an accident in it : atoms never get up a fortuitous 
manifestation ; all roll and unfold together in a glorious 
harmony, and in strictest accordance with the divine 
heart of the indestructible universe. Do you ask the 
question, " Cui buno?" What good ? and what for ? 

Now comes the personal importance of the question. 
Here we are, in this world, standing before ourselves. 
What does it mean? It means that man is still man's 
unsolved problem. I think I need not assure you that I 
have with as much self-forgetful devotion as ever Hindoo 
bowed to his idol, with as much sincerity as an ortho- 
dox minister addresses the throne of the three deities, 
turned my faculties day after day, and year after year, 
to the answer of the question, "Why do I exist?" 



THE OBJECT OF LIFE. 319 

Why, and for what object or end, does my brother and 
my sister, live ? 

Daily I see about me the phenomena of marriage and 
the phenomena of prolification. Here are the facts of 
marriage and parentage, and the facts of bodily disease 
and death and disappearance. These phenomena are 
conspicuous and come before the world every day. Now 
do you not want to know what lies behind and under- 
neath all these phenomena ? Then trace the stream of 
divine thought back to its fountain. Let us go through 
the fields of thought and traverse mountains of mystery 
to their very summits. As fearless explorers work 
among the bleak and snowy hights of the physical 
planet, making paths for others to tread, so let us walk 
upon the beautiful and fertile hights of these mount- 
ains of contemplation. Let us scale them. Sleep out 
every night in your doubts if you choose, or journey 
forward with the bare-skin of skepticism, exposed to 
truth's sun, but in the midst of it all hold fast to the 
healthy idea of the largest integrity and magnanimity 
in your motives. To know, and then to put his best 
knowledge into harness and to make it draw, is the 
grand coronation which accompanies and succeeds the 
good man's search after truth. With a full-hearted and 
holy devotion, I have pursued this question, and I shall 
this morning give you what, to me, is the briefest and 
largest answer. If I ever see more with reference to 
it, and can then speak to you as I now do, I shall be 
ready to tell it ; but if I do not yield a better answer, 
I know that each of you will ; for what is possible to 
me now, is a prophecy of realization for every other 
one in the progress of life. 



320 MORNING LECTURES. 

Leaving the kingdoms of the earth and the mighty 
questions which they suggest, and retiring from the 
starry firmaments and from all the holy questions which 
they awaken, I ask your attention to yourself, because 
in yourself alone you will find the explanation of " Why 
do you exist?" Analyzing the individual externally, 
you find a beginning and an end to the career of being. 
With the planet it is just the same. All things and 
bodies begin with the round 0, what is called "zero" 
in numerals. Man begun thus — no intellect, no indus- 
try, no science, no art; innocence equaled, only by 
ignorance, which, under the highest moral standard, is 
no excellence at all. It is the absence of both vice and 
virtue; a condition equally exposed and assailable. We 
began with the negation, 0. But the moment the intel- 
lect awakened out of the impulses, (for everything has 
love-roots,) that moment an effort was made to expel 
and exclude ignorance, to widen the boundary of know- 
ledge. All the first steps of the race were full of 
stumblings. But through each " fall" mankind arrived 
at much more than they knew before the mistake. Con- 
sider now that the race was thus started and educated. 
What are the results? Make one straight mark at the 
left of the 0, and you will have added 10 to the sum of 
benefits. Everything valuable that men do, adds ano- 
ther mark to the left of the 0. The race has added 
many figures to the left, while the idiot " makes his 
marks" at the right of the 0. What does the ignorant 
one get? Nothing, because his marks to the right of 
the cypher kills its value. Such is the idiotic plan of 
old theology. The progressive plan, on the contrary, 
makes its reports at the left of the zero. We are getting 



THE OBJECT OP LIFE. 321 

used to great figures in the finances of this country. 
These great responsibilities will help to develop the 
better character of the people. Once people would open 
their eyes to see a man worth two millions. Now it 
will do to talk about no less than $3,000,000. Persons 
who plod along through trade and arithmetic, who 
look daily up and down their ledgers, can see nothing 
higher than that which is before them. They say, 
" figures won't lie." So say I. Figures will teach 
mankind everything. They will bring men's characters 
up to their standard, because they will not " lie." There 
is that in marks made to the left of zero which enlarges 
and expands and makes men magnanimous, even when 
the " sum" drives them into driveling and shriveling 
bankruptcy. People never before knew what it was 
that enabled them to rise above great obstacles and 
outswim the Gulf Stream of adversity. 

Figures, in the progressive history of the race, are 
made at the left side of the round 0. What does it 
mean ? It means that mankind have been multiplying 
and enhancing the inherent value of their relations to a 
diviner life. This has been done for you and for me 
It has come out of numbers and out of the teeming cen- 
turies. What is man's organization ? He has a body, 
with a sphere of soul-life between the outmost and the 
spirit, which is deepest within. The greatest external 
success occurs in the middle region ; as between the two 
extremes on the planet is the greatest fertility, the 
greatest industry, and the greatest development of 
wealth. The soul, which is not as high as spirit in 
refinement and function, is in contact with this 
world. It is the source and the play-ground of 
14* 



322 MORNING LECTURES. 

passions and appetites. It is the fulcrum on which all 
passion and force-levers are placed ; the bridge over 
which all animal emotions, impulses and energies travel 
between the body (outmost) and the spirit (inmost). 
Only now and then do we perceive glimmerings of 
pure spirit in man. 

Men and women sing about being angels in this 
world. It is difficult to become angels in the cellar- 
kitchen of life ; but it is possible. You can live a 
sweetly ordered life, and can use your will-power to 
regulate your thoughts and keep discord away. Genuine 
angels know nothing about being " tempted'' to do any- 
thing that is wrong. If you can be tempted, you are not 
yet above the conditions from which temptation ema- 
nates. Pure spirit is above the reach of temptation. 
Moral strength to overcome or to resist evil, is the 
promise of the future angel. It is, in fact, the basis on 
which the angel-character is finally erected; yet if you 
are tempted at all, you have not ascended above the 
soul-plane. You do not yet live in the Spirit. You 
will, therefore, be tempted to do various things — little 
things, great things, bad things, indifferent things — 
sometimes, perhaps, good things may be done unwisely, 
or overdone, or done to excess. I know persons who 
do some good things until they get in everybody's way — 
until a very excellent thing in itself becomes a stum- 
bling-block ; like the expression of divine music, con- 
tinued for hours instead of moments, becomes tedious, 
because too exquisite, and ultimately the best strains 
would be irksome to the highest master of the holy art. 

I said that pure spirit is seldom manifested in this 
world. Why ? Because eighty per cent, of life here is 



THE OBJECT OF LIFE. 323 

body and soul. Hence men say, " Well, there are only 
two parts of us; one is inside, soul; the other outside, 
body." Some insist that there is nothing but matter 
about and within man. Col. Colt, the man who invented 
the pistol bearing his name, a great, splendid looking 
man, once said, " Mr. Davis, I don't understand your 
doctrine. You sav that I have an immortal soul. If 
you will trot it out, so I can see it, I will give you five 
hundred dollars." Wanted me to " trot out" the evi- 
dence that he would live after death. A soul ! he did 
not believe in it as an eternal verity. Said he, " Here 
I am, so much bone and muscle and blood and brain — is 
there anything else? I am perfectly willing/' he 
continued, " to help with money to support a good thing. 
I go to the Catholic Church, and to other meetings 
where I can hear fine singing and eloquent speaking, 
no matter where or who, and I am willing to pay for 
it; but I would give most to know that I shall always 
continue." He expressed the skepticism of vast numbers. 
Body and soul, not spirit, are most manifested dur- 
ing this life. Body is uppermost sixty-five per cent, of 
the time, and only the rest of the hours is given to soul, 
which includes passion, appetite, impulse, and indifferent 
emotions. All the energies that make soul are dis- 
played in the heat of the blood, the electricity of the 
nerves, the will-forces of the brain — all enter into the 
composition of the soul. Now, this fact in life means 
something. I know that men in the churches say, " It 
is because individual man is fallen ; this is why men 
have more body than spirit. The life of your heart is 
blackened by the Adamic curse ; so you are working 
along and struggling through materiality." 



324 MORNING LECTURES. 

But look deeper and see if there be not a beautiful 
meaning in it all. We are not authorized to contend 
with facts ; we are here rather to comprehend and make 
use of them. The age of flagellation, of sacrificial offer- 
ings, of self-excoriation, of unworthy and imbecile 
adoration, is past. The cosmotheosis is begun. Those 
who linger in the rear of the vanguard will continue to 
fall in the ashes, and to roll and crawl like worms in 
the miserable muck of ignorance and theological super- 
stition. Well, why is materiality uppermost ? 

The meaning of it all is, the body is a factory. 

Suppose an Indian should enter a factory at Lowell, 
Mass. Suppose the factory is not at work ; that it is 
being repaired, as he enters for the first observation. 
Suppose the wheels are still, the shafts down on the 
floor and piled up in confusion, the belts lying here 
and there, fire out of the furnace, and that no machinery 
is in action anywhere. He departs without any definite 
impression of its utility. In a few weeks he is again 
shown into that factory ; he looks at the buzzing cog- 
wheels, at the swift spindles, he sees the tremendous 
shafts in the act of revolution, the large leather belts 
running with still power, and he looks upon it with the 
same consternation, or with the same stupid expression, 
as many people look upon the object of their existence 
in this world. The foreman asks the Indian, " What 
do you suppose is the object of these wheels and shafts 
and belts?" " Me don't know." He shakes his head; 
he is almost dumb. The master-machinist then says, 
"Red man, let me tell you. The wheels and all the 
machinery that you see here, are but parts of one design, 
and one result will come out of it all."* The savage, just 



THE OBJECT OF LIFE. 325 

like a skeptic, knowing nothing of the end, is confounded. 
Now, what is that one result ? Do you see that cloth 
piled upon those shelves? What! it is all designed to 
make cloth ? How is it made ? and from what ? The 
savage is now taken do.wn into the lower stories where 
the stock is received. There he sees coarse and dirty 
looking stuff — cotton. " Do you tell me," exclaims the 
Indian to the foreman, " that such stuff is made into that 
beautiful material I saw on the shelves?" The one 
perfect result, accomplished through (to him) countless 
intricacies and most inconsistent parts, was impressed 
upon his savage mind. 

Now, are we not all savages on this problem of 
life's central object ? What means this world so filled 
with confusion? Behold fishes and birds and reptiles 
and plants and trees and stars scattered and sown about 
everywhere. Is it all a system of accidents; all a for- 
tuitous concourse of atoms ? What means all this to 
man? Are not the brightest intellects confounded by 
the wonderful complexity of the system? Let us stand 
on the summits of the mountains, in the presence of this 
grand machinery of the universe, and learn to compre- 
hend the magnitude of its meaning. The human body 
is a factory full of wheels. The stock to be manufac- 
tured into a beautiful fabric, is taken in between the 
lips. Look at the miserable stuff that is prepared in 
the world's kitchens! What does it: mean? It means 
that one result is to be accomplished by the wheels. 
What wheels? The heart, the lungs, the pancreas, 
the liver, the stomach, the gall-ducts, and kidneys* 
The soul and body, after taking in stock, wants an easy 
chair. The brain, the seat of government, has closed 



326 MORNING LECTURES. 

doors for a secret session. The wheels are set in motion, 
for the engine has received energy from the heated 
fiber. You know enough of physiology not to need any 
specifications of the digestive process. Material is being 
manufactured up into the so-called immaterial. The 
spiritual meaning of life answers the question of the 
object of man's existence in this world. The passions 
and appetites may be put to high and grand uses ; for * 
all things we eat and drink, and all the elements we 
breathe, are converted into a garment, which, after 
death, gives personality and form and immortal beauty 
to the spirit. You are here just as the silkworm is in 
the cocoon, winding fine thread into the formation of 
your spirit's body, so that the essence of the spirit itself 
can have personality and be protected forever from dif- 
fusion. At last the soul predominates and becomes the 
crowning work ; all the rest is subordinate and 
co-ordinate and auxiliary. Marriage and parentage 
and homes, and the various arts and sciences, are so 
many intermediates and accessories and tributaries and 
streamlets flowing into the one central object of being 
in this world. 

Whatever we eat and whatever we drink is more 
or less represented in the article manufactured. Hence 
you may have a soul prepared for the Summer-Land, 
streaked with tobacco. Or, it may be very odoriferous 
after death with alcohol. Of course, the flurd alcohol will 
be left just where you left your money and your clothes, 
but the effect of it remains, because you have wrought 
and sprinkled it into your spirit's body. Suppose a 
paper-maker says, " It is no matter what I put into the 
composition before the article is manufactured. I can 



THE OBJECT OF LIFE. 327 

put in cotton and old rags, old boots, some beefsteak, 
some old beans, and I will make paper as good,. and 
white as any other maker." Do you believe that ? 
Ask the artist. Can he put any kind and admixture 
of colors in his piece? No — a beautiful painting 
requires a careful arrangement of properly mixed 
colors. So with man's foods and beverages. He is 
making a spiritual body from all he eats and drinks 
and breathes, and to accomplish this result, in the best 
and highest style, is to fulfill the organic object of the 
present life. 



EXPENSIVENESS OF ERROR IN RELIGION. 



"When from the lips of truth one mighty breath 
Shall, like a whirlwind, scatter in its breeze 
The whole dark pile of human mockeries, 
Then shall the race of mind commence on earth, 
And, starting fresh, as from the second birth, 
Man, in the sunshine of the world's new spring, 
Shall walk transparent, like some holy thing." 

Innovators and reformers are called iconoclasts, or 
idol-and-church-destroyers, and so they are ; because 
most of them have arisen to a plane of comprehensive 
thought and of holier inspiration, from which it is easy 
to see that the time will surely come when whatsoever 
is fleeting and evanescent in the idol-temples, pagodas, 
and churches of the world — their forms, their ceremo- 
nies, their rituals, liturgies, and whatever you choose 
to name that, in them, which causes one sect to differ 
from and hate its neighbor — is destined to be known 
only in the historic monuments of the world, having 
passed utterly out of all human confidence, and thus 
out of existence. 

We, therefore, have the reputation of being opposed 
to churches, which many deem equivalent to being 
opposed to " religion/' I have no acquaintance with 
any sincere spiritual-minded man or woman who wishes 



EXPENSIVENESS OF ERROR IN RELIGION. 329 

to destroy pure and undefiled religion. Excepting those 
who make a great mistake in their conceptions of the 
ordinary meaning of words, I know not one individual 
in spirituality, who supposes that when he is opposing 
the mythological theology of the churches, he is neces- 
sarily thereby opposing religion. Negationists, or the 
anti-spiritual skeptics, seem to think and write as if 
anything that bears the impress or label of religion is 
worthy of their severest invectives and unqualified con- 
demnation. This is not our mental condition; neither 
is it the condition of .many skeptics. Sift the actuating 
motives of these minds — trace their thoughts down to 
the very germs, and you will discover that they oppose, 
and desire to oppose, only what they conceive to be 
"pious frauds,'' and hurtful " errors" in the moral and 
spiritual sentiments of mankind. They are no more 
opposed to true spiritual religion, which is immanently 
fixed in the constitution of the human soul, than they 
are opposed to the fragrance of flowers. 

The universe, as I have before said, is filled with 
designs. Reason very simply and logically follows the 
lead of these designs into very profound depths, and 
unto far-reaching hights of thought, partly by inductive 
research, by the hints of its intuitions, and by means 
of analogy. The existence of light, for illustration, 
presupposes and guarantees the existence of eyes ; the 
existence of sound guarantees, presupposes, and fixes as 
a matter of mathematical necessity, the existence of ears. 
If the fishes in the Kentucky cave have no eyes, it is 
presumptive evidence — in fact, it is demonstrative — • 
that there is therein no light for them. Apply this 
method of reasoning to the structure of the human 



330 MORNING LECTURES. 

mind, nearest its moral and spiritual apex or summits. 
We find there the existence of superior faculties which 
take hold upon truths, ideas and principles — faculties, 
with hearts and tongues, which give off unutterable 
yearnings and utter holiest prayers to know more con- 
cerning human life beyond the grave. Shall we not 
say that these faculties presuppose and demonstrate the 
existence of the truths, ideas, and principles, for which 
they seek and thirst and hunger ? Not only so, but also 
that the Summer-Land life to which they aspire, and 
after which they perpetually inquire, and into which 
they lovingly plunge and bathe whenever the cloud 
of doubt is enough removed to admit of an eternal 
right, is a reality not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens. 

These spiritual faculties are dwelling in the summits of 
the human structure. They, consequently, are the first to 
catch heaven's light when it streams over the horizon 
of faithful thought concerning immortality. The supe- 
rior faculties, being stationed in the superior part of 
the human structure, are also and necessarily the first 
to yearn for what is called "religion." They yearn 
like angelic-children for knowledge of whatsoever is 
spiritual and celestial, pertaining to eternal life, its 
beatitudes and its happiness. These faculties do not 
grow under insincerity and persecution. They are in 
themselves wise. They are also filled with love. Prom 
the center they grow and put forth the purest and most 
enthusiastic aspirations. These ^aspirations spring out 
of divine warmth, which multiplies and fertilizes them : 
and gives them fruitage and happiness. The perceptivo 
part of mind apprehends, applies checks and modifica- 



EXPENSIVENESS OF ERROR IN RELIGION. 331 

tions, gives symmetry of manifestation, and perfection 
of expression. Persons who are wise in their religious 
emotions, are symmetrical in their manifestations. Those 
who have only love in their spiritual faculties, and not 
wisdom, are full of idolatry and impulsiveness — are 
given to extremes, excesses, infatuations, and fanaticisms 
— which you can read in the private and earliest history 
of every religion. Now, it is not what these spiritual 
faculties love that we oppose ; /but the forms which they 
have gathered about them, and through which they have 
necessitated the world to express itself. If the kingdom 
of heaven should " come on the earth" week after next, 
do you suppose it would indorse the different evangeli- 
cal forms of expressing religion ? Do you suppose that 
an approval would come from the courts of infinitude, 
adopting as essential the various exercises and conse- 
quent antagonisms which have grown up full of thorns 
in these churches? Subdue and paint them as much as 
you choose, you will still find that the antagonism of 
the creeds is anti-kingdom-of-heaven ; it is, rather, 
propandemonium, human in origin, and is marked for 
an early consignment to the pit of oblivion. 

We reformers come, therefore, to announce and to 
work for the extinction of these differences. -Not that 
all men will or can think alike, but that they can and 
will raise above creedal differences and reject mytholo- 
gical interpretations of interior truths. On the mere 
controversy as to what is meant in the Bible by the 
word " baptism," millions of bigots and thousands of 
dollars have been added to churches throughout the 
country. That controversy, by making different forms 
of faith, has. built church after church ; one to gratify 



332 MORNING LECTURES. 

the Calvinistic faith, another to gratify the Free Will 
Baptists, and a third to gratify the Close Communion 
Baptists. Do you suppose that, in the good time coming, 
alias the kingdom of heaven, these shallow-brained 
interpretations will be perpetuated ? We do not oppose 
" religion," nor what is true spirituality in the human 
soul ; but we oppose the misapprehension and creeds 
which have clustered about it in the development of the 
religious faculties. The controversy as to whether the 
grace of God was, from the foundation of the world, 
prepared for and meted out to all persons before their 
birth, and thus would foreordain and govern their indi- 
vidual destinies through the eternal ages, or whether 
the grace of God was a free gift to all who would accept, 
has built all these immense piles of property called the 
"Houses of God," or churches and tabernacles. They 
loom up before you in magnificent stupidity. These 
buildings are confessedly coronating the diabolical con- 
troversies that have grown from the foolish interpreta- 
tions of a few unimportant words which somebody, in a 
religious state of mind, uttered twenty centuries ago. 
Do you suppose the kingdom of heaven, alias " the good 
time coming," will approve of such a condition of 
things? If you do, pray for the advent of that king- 
dom ; then, (oh, fearful thought!) you really pray for 
just such reformers and for such iconoclasts and for such 
opponents of the creeds that built the churches, as exist 
and speak and write and work for progress in the nine- 
teenth century! 

The spiritual faculties^ on the summit of the mind, 
exist because there are ideas, principles, truths, and 
eternal Summer-Lands answering to them. These facul- 



EXPENSIVENESS OF ERROR IN RELIGION. 333 

ties yearn for these realities in the universe as naturally 
as one's appetite yearns for food, or the thirsting mouth 
for drink. Thirst presupposes the existence of water, 
and hunger indicates the existence of food. You have 
yearnings to know what is beyond, to appreciate, to 
realize and to enjoy what is ideal and beautiful and 
sweet; and these inborn yearnings are infallible demon- 
strations of the positive existence of all that for which 
they hunger and thirst, and to promote which they 
devote property, yield great industry, and pledge so 
much of time, friendship, love, and worship. 

Can you wonder that the soul delights to sit and 
dream in this beautiful mellow light of the Infinite 
Spirit ? The Lazzaroni of Italy, so poor and so infirm 
that they cannot obtain wood to keep their bodies warm 
in the winter, can go out on the southern side of the 
rocks and cliffs and groves, and absorb the warm sunny 
influences that emanate from the physical orb in the 
blue heavens, a beautiful substitute for the heat of the 
wood that would keep them comfortable. It is thus 
with every human soul at times. You may be a spiritual 
mendicant. You may go about asking heart-charities 
and wisdom-alms of your spiritual brothers or sisters. 
All persons in the churches on Sunday are really asking 
alms of heaven through the pulpit, even when the minis- 
ter himself is miserably " poor in spirit." But almost 
every soul enters the " interior" at times. This deep- 
ening of the mind may come from the reading of ideas, 
or through contemplation of holy principles, or from a 
sacred enthusiasm, or it may be awakened by some exter- 
nal cause like the whisperings of an angel. At such a 
moment the soul will come into a new relation to the 



334 MORNING LECTURES. 

infinite sun. It instantly warms and fertilizes the 
affections, gives unity and joy and beautiful happiness 
/or the moment, and the spirit is lifted beyond utter- 
ance. It is a thrill that goes like lightning throughout 
the spirit, awakening its gratitude and filling its loves 
with inward songs of celestial harmony. Such expe- 
riences invariably come through the inward faculties, 
which, for the moment, are lilted and gratified by con- 
tact with the wise and loving life of the Infinite Father 
and Mother. 

But start with an error, make a radical mistake, 
through want of wisdom in opening your account in the 
day-book and the ledger of theology, and it will run 
throughout all your growth in " religion." From the 
moment it enters into the compilation, your whole record 
is vitiated. Sometimes, in our large banks and in our 
commercial institutions, an error creeps stealthily into 
the ledger. At first, perhaps, it is but a vulgar frac- 
tion. In a few months it increases rapidly; in a few 
years it is large and important. In a quarter of a cen- 
tury, when the great day of settlement has come, when 
the stockholders apply to know definitely all their 
resources and liabilities, then comes an investigation, 
and a ponderous and expensive error is found running 
through all the books of the institution. Then they 
send for the best known accountant to review and ana- 
lyze the books. Days and weeks, and perhaps months, 
are given to the tedious labor of ferreting out the error 
and expelling it from the books of the institution. It 
requires a good deal of money to compensate the inves- 
tigator, and a great deal of fine insight is expended in 
seeing exactly how that little blunder originated. How 



EXPENSIVENESS OF ERROR IN RELIGION. 335 

enormously it grew in twenty-five years ! sweeping 
away much capital and the reputation of honest clerks, 
and how anxious all stockholders were to get the wrong 
righted, the error expelled, and the reform estab- 
lished. 

Now suppose you apply this to the errors of religion. 
But just here let us remember it is not claimed that the 
business of the mercantile, banking, or commercial insti- 
tution was in itself spurious, but that there was a vicious, 
and expensive, and demoralizing error introduced ; but 
not necessarily by any evil intent on the part of the 
persons who opened the account. Of religious error we 
say the same. The word "religion" I now use to 
express the spirit of truth in the human soul, which 
includes goodness and virtue and all the higher attri- 
butes and beauties of the Infinite. Truth, and a love 
for truth, seems to be the finest embodiment and exem- 
plification of what is called " God." The faculties 
group themselves in worshipful love about that concep- 
tion. That conception is, in itself, a treasure of infinite 
value to the spirit. It gives joy and holy peace. But 
in gratifying these faculties, which see truth, and enter- 
tain the love of truth, mankind frequently commit mis- 
takes and originate expensive errors. The greatest and 
heaviest error is what men call " theology." We dis- 
criminate with great tenacity, and forever insist upon 
our definition, between the "religion" and "theology" 
which has crept into religion. The error of the theology 
runs throughout the world, and is threatening the 
so-styled civilized, portion of mankind with political as 
well as religious bankruptcy. To-day it is necessary 
that our best spiritual accountants should enter into an 



336 MORNING LECTURES. 

investigation, and ferret out the error, and leave the 
pure spirit of religion an opportunity to flourish as the 
white rose of heaven. 

Reformers, intellectually, socially, and spiritually, are, 
like other men and women, more or less imperfect; some 
are very good, but very peculiar ; some talk and write 
and work with a great deal of discord; some are 
exceedingly antagonistic and disagreeable to encounter; 
but with all their eccentricities and sledge-hammer 
roughness, with all their excoriating adjectives and 
unrestrained expletives, they are the necessary agents 
of Justice, the vicegerents of eternal truth, working in 
the midst of idols and forms and ceremonies, and relieving 
the world.of expensive errors in its theologies. Theology 
is the systematic form in which the spirit of religion is 
clothed. Theology I do not at all believe in ; while I 
believe profoundly in religion. That is, I believe in 
whatsoever my spirit sees and feels is spiritual and inte- 
rior and eternal. No deep nature can have faith in 
that which is evanescent, fleeting, formal, ceremonial, 
and suited only to gratify, for the time, those persons 
who suppose that " theology" should give shape and 
expression to pure and undefiled religion. Pure and 
undefiled truth is simple and easily comprehended. 
Every one has faith in it from the source of intuition. 
Did* you ever hear any one speak of old theology — 
the legitimate child of an ignorant priesthood — as 
being " pure and undefiled" ? 

Polytheism, the doctrine of a great many Gods; or 
Pantheism, in which all being is God ; Dualism — mean- 
ing a God and a Devil; or Deism, which is Unitarian- 
ism, teaching the one God — these aii enter into the 
catalogue of the world's theologies. Anthropomorph- 



EXPENSIVENESS OF ERROR IN RELIGION. 337 

ism, that is, attributing to God the form and charac- 
ter of man, is sacred to many civilized people. They 
will receive no revelations or inspirations which tend 
to dissipate the notion that God is a great man. If it 
be affirmed that " God is a spirit," and that spirit is 
diffused throughout the universe, the statement is label- 
ed " pantheism.'' And yet this rs the doctrine of the 
New Testament. (See John, chapter iv., 24th verse.) 
In the Old Testament, on the other hand, you will find 
the doctrine of anthropomorphism, the man-God, or 
deism — Jehovah, the concentration of almightiness, the 
focalization of all stout convictions concerning the attri- 
bute of omnipotence — Jehovah, the Jewish God of infi- 
nite, desperate, and destructive attributes, with nothing 
for the heart, and generally repulsive to everything 
human. 

When the heart grows warmer and larger, it sees, 
or thinks it sees, a Father in the maker, and calls him 
by that endearing name. Such hearts pray to the 
" Father" instead of to Jehovah, whose omnipotence 
and implacable-justice overwhelm the mind. The human 
soul is filled with conceptions of pure tenderness, which 
call for tender eternal relations. These spiritual facul- 
ties require tender relations in every stage of their 
development. Hence the Father was revealed, prayed 
to, besought, invoked, and teased too much by the child- 
hood stage of the race. It makes children fretful, 
peevish, and small-minded to cry all their wants and 
troubles and sorrows into the ears of the Infinite Spirit. 
But this absurdity is a part of theology, and here is an 
error, and yet it is a spontaneous, though unwise, 
expression of the spirit of love and worship by the reli- 
15 



338 MORNING LECTURES. ~ 

gious faculties. Many souls affect to be severely shocked, 
and their children in Sunday-schools are really shocked, 
because their theology says the all-beautiful, all- loving, 
all-embracing Father is particeps criminis to the eternal 
damnation of nine persons in every ten ! There are 
civilized ministers in the city of New York to-day, who 
are (I trust) ashamed to the very heart for ever having 
believed and taught any such error in religion. And 
yet there are some persons who affect to believe this 
stupid error with all their heart — of course that organ 
cannot be very spacious; and there are ministers who 
yet preach it with all their heads — the capacity whereof 
does not excite anybody's astonishment. But, unhappily, 
they have the power to make mothers believe, and the 
innocent children whom such mothers send to the Sun- 
day-schools also believe, that God is a great Baptist, 
instead of a Presbyterian sprinkler, or that God is a 
red-hot Methodist instead of an easy-going Quaker, or 
polite Unitarian. These are the errors that creep into 
religion. Whether God be a Quaker, or a Sprinkler, 
or a Plunger, it is of little consequence in the great 
future of true religion. God is infinite, a spirit, a man, 
or a tyrant — just what you choose to make him in your 
seven-by-nine creeds and dogmas. If the whole isle of 
New York was soft, malleable, and golden clay — if you 
could move it and shape it into anything that suited 
your fancy by your hand, you would doubtless under- 
take to do it, and all the children would follow your 
example, and thus you and they would begin to make 
various forms of thought and countless toys out of the 
universal plastic substance. Your conception of the 
spirit of God is like that clay. You make all kinds of 



EXPENSIVENESS OF ERROR IN RELIGION. 339 

idols, creeds, and theologies out of the universal plastic 
substance. The spirit of God, however, being the same 
everywhere and at all times, is not thrown from its 
equilibrium by these childish forms and toys made by 
learned theologians. The tangible and intangible Gods 
and Jesuses, which are made by the cartload out of 
theology, do not disturb the Infinite heart, Mother, 
neither the Infinite mind, Father. In this light, there- 
fore, theology is' an innocent error. And yet the men 
of the city of New York have spent money enough, to 
gratify these foolish idolatries, to give ninety-seven 
thousand families a comfortable home worth five thou- 
sand dollars each ! 

The early Jews, who were in many respects, by far 
the most intelligent people, maintained a distant alle- 
giance to common sense. They believed in a Jehovah; in 
one God, in no devil, and in a new Jerusalem. They 
did not exactly know whether the new Jerusalem would 
be in this world or in the next. And generally there 
was a difference of opinion upon these points. The Rab- 
bis differed widely on many religious questions, but they 
never concocted any of the monstrous errors of theology 
which have built modern churches. They had their syna- 
gogues. Their temples of religion were devoted to the 
gathering together of the people, so that they might 
sing and give full expression to their convictions of 
supernaturalism. They had their shekinahs, their image 
temples, and their decorated tabernacles ; but their 
forms were all symbolic and brim-full of spiritual mean- 
ings. They enjoyed their festivals and glorifications ; 
it was a pleasant way to pass the time. The same old 
forms are observed by Jews at this late age of the world. 



340 MORNING LECTURES. 

The tinsel and paraphernalia of the New York syna- 
gogues would suit thirty-five hundred years ago. The 
plan was at first a simple organization of persons, 
believers in theocracy, for the enjoyment of religion, 
and not to teach a mythical theology. The first con- 
ception that formed the basic error in theology, was that 
man, by an incomprehensible fall, had lost all connection 
with the Infinite Spirit. Theologians have never tried 
to reconcile this doctrine with common sense, because it 
is never necessary in theology to have things reconciled. 
It is a proud peculiarity of the system to be superna- 
tural, which is the name for what is absurd and impos- 
sible. 

Theology began with the assumption that the human 
race was out of joint with God's will. God is repre- 
sented as being just as anxious as man was to get out 
of this state of eternal difference and conflict. It was 
necessary to turn a fable inside out, and wrong side 
foremost, in order to fix an explanation of the great 
quarrel between God and his only two children, which 
happened in a very small place called Eden. They had 
willfully diverged from the Infinite Love! Theologians 
say that God could not help it ! He must be excused 
for the straying of his two children! He was all 
benevolence and all wise. He concocted the atonement 
long before the sin was committed, knowing from the 
first that Adam and Eve would cut up just the caper 
they did in the fable. Preparations were accordingly 
made from the foundations of the world. The remedy 
was ready to be administered to all who would shut 
their eyes, open their mouths, ask no questions, and 
swallow. This is what theologians call the atonement. 



EXPENSIVENESS OF ERROR IN RELIGION. 341 

That is a desperate and most expensive error. It is 
based on the doctrine that you are totally sinful, or that 
you are sufficiently sinful to deserve an eternal existence 
in cheap Brimstone. To recover you from that dilemma, 
the atonement was prepared. By its provisions you are 
to be accepted in the kingdom of heaven, and esteemed 
worthy of that state of existence, on the merits of 
an innocent man who was made to suffer for sinners. 

Such is the machinery of error in theology. There 
is nothing of the kingdom of God in it ; there is no reli- 
gion in it. Many excellent persons suppose that their 
hope of happiness in the future is annihilated with the 
overthrow of the atonement. Thousands cling to a 
shallow error, and suppose that by faith in it, they will 
be prepared after death to enter upon the joys of the 
kingdom of peace. But thousands come back from the 
other life to tell us a very different story. What is 
necessary to make this atonement universally accepted 
and efficacious ? There is but one-third of the popula- 
tion of this globe that has any confidence in or any 
knowledge whatever of such a supernatural institution 
as the death of Jesus. Only one person in three of the 
earth's population— about 370,000,000 out of 1000,- 
000,000 — know anything about this error of theology. 
Some have heard it ; some see it in the newspapers. 
Away off in China the missionaries preach this absurdity 
of superstition. They do what Bishop Colenso did, 
teach the theories of theology ; religion, pure and unde- 
nted, they do not often explain to the heathen. What, 
we again ask, would make this atonement universal and 
efficacious ? Reason will have nothing to do with such 
a theory. " Faith !" Here is the third error which 



342 MORNING LECTURES. 

follows of necessity the first, which is the " fall," and 
the second, which is the " atonement. 55 Look at these 
churches, and look at their ministers. They are, doubt- 
less, just as earnest in their labors and just as faithful 
to their convictions as are they who work in a better 
cause. I am satisfied that, for earnestness and honesty, 
there is nothing to choose between a Catholic, a Pro- 
testant, my brother Beecher, or my brother Tyng. They 
are as honest in their calling, and' as faithful to their 
internal convictions as are less or more civilized minds. 
Toward the individuals of the different forms of faith 
I do not feel any uncharitableness. I do not believe 
that they are hypocrites and deceivers. Disreputable 
as the fact may be to their intelligence, they do believe 
earnestly in the errors of " theology" as well as in the 
truths of "religion. 55 But theology, and not religion, is 
the origin of their churches. Their religious hatreds and 
creedal antagonisms arise from theology. Hence we are 
" in duty bound 5 ' to oppose the diversal systems of 
theology as the first step toward the development of 
true religion. 

Christians, impelled by their theology, and moved 
by their benevolence and charity, which are the best 
elements of religion, send off millions of money and 
hundreds of missionaries to carry a knowledge of 
" faith" as well as of "sin, 5 ' and of the " atonement, 55 to 
the heathen. As the person of African descent said : 
"It is an ill wind that blows nowhar." So this mis- 
sionary movement: By necessity it carries some items 
of useful education, somewhat of the impulses of civili- 
zation, more advanced habits of social life, a few notions 
about cultivating the soil, new patterns for garments, 



EXPENSIVENESS OF ERROR IN RELIGION. 343 

and several plans for building houses and churches. It 
carries " glory" and " grog" to the heathen. The mis- 
sionary work is, therefore, associated, for the most part, 
with what is good. For these reasons men willingly 
subscribe their dollars to help the solemn-hearted mis- 
sionary on his perilous way. Although his theology is 
of no consequence, you think that possibly there may 
be something connected with the minister's family which 
may be useful and ennobling to the savages. But it 
will not do to say a great deal in that direction. We 
do not get encouraging reports from travelers. The 
flattering reports of great works among the heathen 
come through the religious papers, written by the mis- 
sionaries themselves. Of course, they give a ministerial 
report of the missionary work in which they are involved, 
and to which they have, with great self-sacrifice, con- 
secrated themselves to carry the " efficacious" errors in 
religion to the savages of the forest wild. 

What follows faith ? " Regeneration." This is the 
climax of the theological structure. Look about you in 
society and see the original characters who have been 
born nearly two thousand years after this saving (?) 
theology was started. Who are your chief men at 
Washington ? Who are they who occupy your highest 
places to-day? Are they Spiritualists, Reformers, Pro- 
gressionists—persons who are wholly and unqualifiedly, 
publicly and privately, opposed to the absurdities of 
old theology — who have no faith in creeds and cere- 
monies? No. They are men who are known to be 
publicly allied to the sectarian churches and to the fol- 
lies of theology ; but they are not as fully known to be 
allied to pure and undefiled religion. These public 



r 



344 MORNING LECTURES. 

men at Washington are, many of them, much advanced 
in years. Some of them are dead — have you not read 
their obituaries in the papers-? — in trespasses and sins. 
The Republicans and Democrats to-day correspond to 
the publicans and sinners of the olden time. The 
American government is engineered by persons who 
openly and shamelessly profess to have adopted all the 
four errors of theology: "sin," the "atonement," 
"faith," and " regeneration. " Somebody has been 
unkind enough to say that I am opposed to " religion." 
Does it necessarily follow, because a person is opposed 
to the forms of error in theology, that he is therefore 
opposed to pure spirituality, and opposed to what is 
good and true in religion ? Let us discriminate care- 
fully, lest we be stranded upon this rock of illogical 
reasoning and wicked prejudice. It is like the passage 
between Scylla and Charybdis — ignorance on one side, 
theology on the other. Man must steer his bark, his 
reason, his intuition, and his character between these 
♦dangerous obstructions on either side of the channel, or 
he will be dashed to pieces. 

Religion, without wisdom, is fanatical. It is a cru- 
sade of the sepulcher — it worships and fights for a little 
piece of ground; it sacrifices everything to an idol. 
The simple-minded and loving-hearted nature loves to 
appeal to the Infinite Spirit. No person thinks of any 
form of faith while under the experience of devotional 
prayer. The spirit enjoys the luxury of contact, as the 
sense of smell enjoys the special fragrance of a beloved 
flower. There is little difference between the rapport 
and the spiritual gratification. When you truly approach 
the Infinite, you sensibly become part of it. The theory 



EXPEN8IVENESS OF ERROR IN RELIGION. 345 

of the contact is theology ; the experience of the con- 
tact is religion. Theology stands off and builds up 
a system. But when your spirit comes in contact with 
the spirit of truth, which is the spirit of fraternity and 
unity, you then know nothing of theological notions. A. 
grand joy and a loving happiness thrills and fills the 
whole temple of your spirit. Then you are divinely 
warm and tender; you feel kindly and sweetly 
toward all members of the human family. You were 
vindictive, but you are now forgiving ; you were angu- 
lar, but you have become harmonious. That is the 
blessing of God; the fragrance of the Infinite Flower. 
You now feel that there is nothing in the world as 
important as pure spirituality. One more step and you 
become fanatical. You believe devoutly that religion 
is the chief concern of mortals here below. From this 
abnormal state it will take but a very slight alteration 
in your mind to make a religious twaddler or fanatic. 

Because man's spiritual faculties are not the whole, 
but only a part of his mental structure. Look at these 
faculties throughout the other parts and windows of the 
temple. Examine them with your reason. They mean 
something, do they not? They have a high work to 
do, else why are they such a superior power? Go into 
these upper chambers of your spirit, and dwell there for 
a time. Nothing is more important than the just and 
complete gratification of the desires of your spiritual 
faculties. But a religious " revival" is mostly abnor- 
mal. Methodists frequently experience the fascination 
and fanaticism thereof. The new convert is too happy 
to sleep quietly ; she gets out of bed, kneels, and prays ; 
but she cannot attend to getting the next*morning's 
)5* 



346 MORNING LECTURES. 

meal. John, who is not converted, wants to go out 
early on his farm to work ; but Jane, his wife, has just 
" got religion," and cannot attend tfl such labors. Of 
course the potatoes in the pan are burned, and generally 
things have grown "irreligious" in the house. But 
John goes out to his work, and Jane goes into her bed. 
She prays long and devoutly ; then lies down with great 
exhaustion, and sleeps. Presently she awakes and turns 
# over the leaves of her Bible. She remembers the min- 
ister's last text. It is the first sentence that meets her 
eye ! It seems as though God himself had spoken it to 
her. It goes right to her heart. Then she remembers 
the last song that made her heart so joyous, and imme- 
diately she sets up to sing the heavenly hymn. By this 
time her excited feelings have made her very weary. 
John has just come home for supper, and there is the 
same difficulty. This folly continues about ten days. 
Thus some families get religion very bad. Now and 
then these "revivals" are attended with violent symp- 
toms which subside into imbecility. There is a vast 
space between pure religion and religious excitement. 

We come now to consider the expensiveness of error in 
religion. We will confine our remarks to this city, say- 
ing nothing about the other great cities of superstitious 
Christendom. In the city of New York alone theolo- 
gical error has erected 33 Baptist churches, 4 Con- 
gregational, 22 Dutch Reformed, 18 Jewish Synagogues, 
7 Lutheran, 35 Methodist Episcopal churches, 5 Afri- 
can Episcopal churches, 1 Methodist Protestant, 46 
Presbyterian, 6 United Presbyterians, 56 Protestant 
Episcopal churches, (the latter being the genteelest of 
all), 31 Roman Catholic — mother and daughter you see 



EXPENSIVENESS OF ERROR IN RELIGION. 347 

close together — miscellaneous additional 20, and among 
the whole of them we find but three Quaker meet- 
ing-houses, two Unitarian, and four Universalist 
churches. 

Therefore we find 284 temples consecrated to error 
in religion, in New York alone ; net counting any of 
the churches just over in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and 
Jersey City. These expensive buildings indicate what 
theology, or religious error, has erected on the island 
of Manhattan ! These temples and pagodas must have 
talented and expensive ministers, and in •addition they 
have sextons, and they must, (thank heaven !) they must 
also have choirs. By calculation you will find that the 
cost of the gas per annum — and there is a great deal of 
this article used — together with the heat, and sexton's 
hire, and the excellent music for the churches, amounts 
yearly to about §500 ; the average amount of all 
expenses, in all the churches for ministers, &c. is a little 
over $2000, for each church per year. Now suppose 
we add up the original cost of all these churches, and 
combine the interest on this sum with the annual 
expenses, for thirty years, or a generation. Salaries, 
gas, fire, sexton, and music, with interest on the first 
cost, amounts to not less than one million of dollars 
per annum ; making the aggregate expense of religious 
error for thirty years in the city of New York more 
than thirty millions ! Now ask Dr. Spring, or any 
orthodox gentleman, how many souls have been pro- 
bably saved in the city of New York during thirty 
years, and he will shudder. For his theology says 
that only one soul in ten ever gets within sight of the 
kingdom of heaven ! 



348 MORNING LECTURES. 

If homes at the rate of $5000 a piece were* pur- 
chased for the poor of this continent, and given to them 
out and out, they would amount to just what New 
York sectarianism costs once in every thirty years. 
Thousands of worthy fathers and mothers with their 
families might thus become proprietors of homes worth 
each $5000, and virtue and happiness would increase in 
proportion to such benevolence. Various excesses, 
intemperance, despair, recklessness, and the thousands 
of influences that go to make up the vagrants and the 
criminals of the world, would be utterly prevented by 
the increase of the benevolence of pure and undefiled 
religion — leading to physical, spiritual, moral, and 
intellectual education, and to universal democracy and 
enrichment. Crime diminishes in proportion as people 
are lifted above the oppressive forms of poverty. 
Churches absorb immense amounts of money merely to 
give shape and form to religious errors, which the 
believers worship as truths. You know that under 
such perversities and misappropriations, crime must 
stalk through New York society, and your police sys- 
tem must be doubled and trebled as the population 
increases. 

Mankind must be brought to see that theology is 
error, and that Religion is " pure and undefiled" and 
inexpensive ; and that to be more, and to profess less, is 
fulfilling life's grand objects, and taking a diviner posi- 
tion in the universe. 



WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 



" Open thy soul to God, Man, and talk 
Through thine unfolded faculties with Him 
Who never, save through faculties of mind, 
Spake to the Fathers." 

Portions of the New Testament are opulent with 
hints of eternal truths. They are parts of the unspeaka- 
ble harmonies of God and Nature. In the writings of 
John (chap, xix., v. 2,) there is a beautiful, social, 
spiritual affirmation, which begins, "In my Father's 
house. 55 Like a child he speaks of his father's posses- 
sions in a pleasant and grateful spirit. "In my Father's 
house there is one immense room — no separate chambers 
and no compartments — adapted to only one family of 
one mind and one faith. 55 Does it read so ? No ; but 
it would suit the orthodox sectarians if the verse were so 
written. The passage reads thus : " In my Father's 
house there are many mansions ; if it were not so, I 
would have told you. 5 ' 

Yes, if there were not "many mansions' 5 in the 
house of God, the intuitive Nazarene would have known 
the fact. Multitudinous human hopes and tender aspi- 
rations have sailed over the river on that beautiful 
barge — on that mystic affirmation — which, floatiug on 



350 MORNING LECTURES. 

the flowing sea of the olden time, comes very near to 
our hearts to-day, not valuable because it is laden with 
priestly authority, but because it comes indorsed by 
the spiritual discoveries and positive facts of the last 
fifteen years. 

" In my Father's house there are many mansions ; if 
it were not so, I would have told you." How tender 
and beautiful, how simple and true, how childlike and 
sublime ! The earth is the Land of Winter, of storms 
and sorrows; but the second sphere is the Summer- 
Land of repose and infinite blossoming. Many apart- 
ments in the Summer-Land for different peoples and 
races of men. Various localities and spheres for dif- 
ferent inclinations. Provision is made for the com- 
plete gratification of the diversities of spiritual desires 
in human character, so that all races and all states of 
mind will be " at home" in the Father's house which is 
eternal in the heavens — friendly brotherhoods all, 
though billions, trillions of leagues apart ! 

Whose heart does not beat in melodious harmony 
with that beautiful sentiment from the Intuitions of long 
ago — with that ever dear and lovingly sweet affirmation 
from the source of positive revelation? It comes clad 
with the majestic authority in which all truth travels to 
mankind. It stamps the spirit with an inward con- 
viction of " eternal reality." 

On this globe there are high mountains yet utter 
strangers to human footsteps. Those grand old monu- 
ments of matter, with their tops perpetually cloud- 
vailed, have been for centuries innumerable unknown to 
human intelligence and contemplation. Storms are 
beneath their lofty summits. No man's foot has pressed 



WINTER-LA.ND AND ? SUMMER-LAND. 351 

their dizzy hights. The tempests are lower down. So 
our mariners report of storms on the vast oceans. But 
down deep in the waters all is still ; high enough in the 
air, all is calm. The middle ground is where the fierce 
battles of the elements are fought. The conflicting 
powers meet and pass each other, never to meet again. 
Sometimes they meet and fight with such terrible energy 
as, for the moment, to shake the neighboring earth and 
cause the bending heavens to tremble as though they 
were to be rolled together as a scroll. And yet deep 
enough in the inanimate apartments of the physical 
world all is still and peaceful ; high enough in the ethe- 
real space all is equally silent and without commotion. 
Indeed, so perfectly still is the air above at a certain 
bight, that the stroke of a hammer on a log's end could 
be heard from New York to California. The slightest 
accent of the human voice "could be there heard for 
hundreds of miles. Persons might converse with the 
Atlantic between them, in a voice not louder than is 
usual, if they were high enough up in this ethereal 
realm. The sun that shines with such glory and splendor, 
distributing warmth and fertilization over the earth's 
bosom, playing so sweetly and tenderly with the flow- 
ers and laughing with the rivers that come flowing 
down from the mountains, exerts no influence upon this 
upper sky-region. Go up fifteen to twenty miles, and 
you find utter night, notwithstanding the noontide glory 
and blaze of the sun's rays on the face of the earth. 
The effect of the sun's rays is altogether terrestrial, not 
atmospherical; that is, the manifestation of its light 
and warmth is attributable more to mundane than to 
solar causes. 



352 MORNING LECTURES. 

The wonders of the physical atmosphere, within the 
fifty miles, would be a tax upon any one's faith. And 
yet I ask you to ascend in your thoughts millions and 
billions of miles beyond our earth's atmosphere. In the 
physical world you find works and wonders inexpressi- 
ble. How expressive of the spiritual grandeur and 
omnipotence of the Infinite Soul ! How can you but be 
filled with adoration and most glorious contemplations 
when the celestial truth is brought to your mind, that 
'• in the Father's house are many mansions." If it were 
not so, the seers and mediums would have told you. 

Let us think of the physical aspect of the Summer- 
Land. Many persons have understood me to have said 
that it is a globe. I do not mean to be so understood. 
The beautiful Land, as I have frequently seen it, and as 
many have testified concerning it, is a solid belt of land, 
or zone, round in form like the tire of a wheel, but it is 
not a globe — is not spherical nor inhabitable in all 
directions. Imagine a belt extending above the earth 
two-thirds of the distance from the sun, and say seventy 
millions of miles wide. Imagine that belt to be immea- 
surably larger than the sun's path around Alcyone in 
the deep of immensity. Suppose this belt to be open at 
the sides, and filled with worlds and crowned with stars 
and suns, and overhead and all around a firmament just 
like these heavens above the earth. Look in that 
direction and you will see just what you see on earth, 
only everything further unfolded and more perfect. 
There is exhibited the perfections of the plans of the 
infinite temple which here is only fractional and frag- 
mentaiy. Thus you may somewhat imagine the appear- 
ance and shape of the Summer-Land. 



WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 353 

What is called the " Milky Way" is really a belt of 
suns, and planets, and satellites. There seems also to 
be branch-fields of stars, setting off sidewise from the 
body of the belt. Then when the telescope is pointed 
in certain directions, where the unaided human eye can 
see nothing, there are developed, first nebulas-cloudy 
regions ; next, if the telescope be strong enough, like 
Lord Ross's, it reveals the fact that what were sup- 
posed to be only star-clouds, are immense fields of stars, 
suns, and lesser bodies. Those star-fields open here 
and there and make a vista, and, looking through, there 
is revealed a black space which no telescope has yet 
been able to dissolve ; but clairvoyance has made the 
promise that when the telescopic power is adequate, 
what now appear to be only empty portions of immensity 
will v turn out to be as full of those orbs as the great 
meadow is full of spears of grass. There are large 
islands of atmosphere between the planets. These air- 
islands serve as silken cushions (so to say) to keep the 
rolling planets supplied with electricity and also to pre- 
vent the friction which would exist were all the spaces 
occupied with worlds. So that there are really "atmo- 
spheric islands" (as I am impressed to term them) as well 
as immeasurable star-systems, in the far-off immensity. 

Now the Summer-Land is in harmony with this 
physical circle of planets called the " Milky Way." It 
is a belt, a zone, or girdle, of real, substantial matter. It 
is beyond the Milky Way only in the sense of its being 
far-off according to our habits of using language. When 
liberated at death, we do not move on toward the sun, 
nor drop downwards into some dreary depth of dark- 
ness ; we embark on a sidewise voyage, directly above 



354 MORNING LECTURES. 

the southern extremity of our planet, and thence onward 
until we reach the Summer-Land ! What shore do we 
gain ? We gain the shore of a land just like this earth, 
if this earth were a stratified belt composed of the finest 
possible particles that you can imagine thrown from all 
the orbs composing the Milky Way. Pulverize and 
attenuate the finest particles of matter on this earth ; 
then bring them together in chemical relations ; make 
them coalesce and form into an immeasurable golden 
belt with all the visible suns and stars, and you have 
the Second Sphere in its substance, position, and forma- 
tion. 

Do you not comprehend that that Land is as sub- 
stantial to those who* live there as this earth is to its 
inhabitants ? The proportions and the adaptations are 
the same. The Summer-Land, so far as the surrounding 
immensity is concerned, is bounded on all sides by aerial 
seas. Suppose you should go down to any of those high 
points of land along the coast, and look off on the 
watery expanse of the Atlantic ocean. What would you 
see ? No islands are visible; only an atmosphere over- 
head ; clouds are floating in the blue sky, and all the 
rest is water. Now suppose you had never seen, or read, 
or heard of such a spectacle. What would be your 
first impression? Your first sensuous impression would 
be that all the immensity beyond was water, as all 
above is sky, and that, if you should sail off on that 
dreary waste, you would be lost utterly to land and to 
human society. Such, I say, would be your impression 
or apprehension on the supposition that you had no pre- 
vious knowledge of any such spectacle in Nature. 

Now imagine yourself standing on one of those 



WIXTER-LAXD AND SUMMER-LAND. 355 

shining shores on the margin of the Summer-Land. 
Looking toward the Earth, and Sun, and Mercury, and 
Venus, what would you see ? If you were not a far- 
seeing clairvoyant, but was contemplating with the first 
opening of your spiritual eyes, you would see an illi- 
mitable ocean of twinkling stars overhead and zones of 
golden suns shining, and you would realize a holy, 
celestial atmosphere, bounding your existence on all 
sides, and from your feet the departure of an ocean 
without shore or island, without form, and void of all 
relations. If, however, your clairvoyant sight was 
opened — if your spiritual eyes had the light of far- 
penetrating clairvoyance in them — you would instantly 
perceive that the aerial ocean, which flows out into 
infinity from your feet, ripples off and divides into beau- 
tiful ethereal rivers, and that those rapidly flowing 
rivers lead away to the planets, even to this Earth, 
whence you departed, while another river flows onward 
to Mars, another to Jupiter, another to Saturn, and. 
other celestial streams to other more distant planets 
belonging to other systems of suns : and so on, and on, 
throughout the star-paved regions of the firmament, you 
would behold, in every imaginable direction, streams 
running musically down these gentle atmospheric 
declivities, just as tangibly as the rivers that run down 
the mountains and flow through the spaces in the 
rough landscapes of this more material world. 

I wish ! oh how I wish ! that I could picture to you 
the reality of these musical rivers of the heavenly spaces. 
They are musical to the ear that can hear them flowing 
between the constellations. Pythagoras and his school 
believed in the deathless fi music of the spheres." Did 



356 MORNING LECTURES. 

not the students of Pythagoras listen to catch that 
compound symphony ? And was it not this very star- 
melody which caused them to be such enthusiasts in 
Music ? Did not some of them in the far-off olden 
time have clairaudience enough to hear through the 
physical, and also clairvoyance sufficient to see that "in 
the Father's house there are many mansions" — many 
happy and beautiful places — many apartments or spheres 
of human life— and that these different apartments in 
the celestial temple were so many local scenes and land- 
scapes, belonging to the Summer-Land, which breathe 
eternal harmony throughout infinitude — "the music of 
the spheres" ? 

Now suppose you were this moment standing on the 
shining shore of the Summer-Land and looking this way, 
the out-flowing sea would appear about the same to your 
sight, without the light of clairvoyance, as would the 
Atlantic Ocean to the natural eye from the promonto- 
ries of Nahant. It would, perhaps, at first, be no more 
of a startling spectacle of incomprehensible sublimity. 
Very many persons depart every day from this Land of 
Winter for the Summer-Land. When they are led 
through the celestial gardens and down by the shining 
shores, and when they begin to hear the lapping of 
musical waves as they ripple in.„.from the very remote 
planets, bringing upon their throbbing, undulating 
bosoms, new persons who had but just died (left their 
gross bodies) on those planets— the scene operates upon 
them (because yet uninitiated) just as though you were 
to see spirits with beautiful forms suddenly coming from 
off the water by the seaside, or persons walking and 
riding upon the surface of the waters at Nahant, or down 



WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 357 

here on the ocean near the rocky shores of Long Island. 
I say the first exhibition astonishes them as much as 
such a novel scene would surprise you of this world. 

I will now relate a true story : A little girl, who 
had lost her darling playmate, dreamed about the 
Summer-Land. This sweet little weeping dreamer lived 
in Boston. I knew her well. Death had taken her 
beautiful mate away. The funeral procession went by 
the door of her father's house. Her mother owned a 
cushioned seat in a fashionable church, and of course 
the little daughter had a fashionable, religious direction 
given to her thoughts. What were her thoughts on 
death ? She thought all of her little mate was put 
" into the ground" — laid low in the cold, loveless earth ; 
and that when the insensate gravel, stones, and chilly 
soil, were thrown from the spades upon the coffin, they 
covered all that there was of her, and all there would 
be of her, until that mysterious " trump" would sound 
in the " resurrection morn/' when Jehovah would call 
those long-sleeping "jewels" that were particularly his 
own, to himself. 

Well, little Mattie stood weeping by the front- 
window as the pageantry went solemnly through the 
street toward the green retreats of Mount Auburn. She 
asked her mother wha,t it all meant. Over and over 
again the mother answered that they were going to bury 
the little girl " in the ground" ! This seemed to strike 
Mattie, for the first time, as something horrible to think 
of. She had, perhaps, never thought seriously of it 
before; the dread reality of this false view of death 
never touched her affections till now. She had seen 
funeral processions ; but this particular funeral went 



3'jS morning lectures. 

out of her saddened heart to the silent cemetery. Her 
mother said that God always did so; it was his own 
mysterious way. When people die they are put into 
the ground, then the ground is thrown over them, and 
the grass and the ages grow over them ; when the time 
comes, they arise from their long sleep and hasten to 
God, if they are called; if not — you know the rest of 
the story. 

Mattie sadly swallowed all this religious error, and 
shuddered. She was a beautiful girl then — a young 
lady now. 

Two weeks after that funeral there was a fashiona- 
ble party in Boston. Mattie received an invitation. 
Her parents were very rich, and she had gold rings and 
chains, and many beautiful dresses ; but she now wanted 
another and a more attractive ring, which she had acci- 
dentally seen down in Washington street. It was a 
splendid ornament. She wanted it in time for the 
party. Her parents shook their heads and opposed 
her wishes. They said she had so many ornaments, was 
always so beautifully dressed, and so elegantly and 
expensively arranged in her person, she ought not to 
ask for anything more. It was difficult for parental 
love to deny her, an only child ; but they did, neverthe- 
less, refuse to purchase the ring.„ 

Disappointed and- grieved, Mattie hastened to her 
room and thought it over ; and on the second day in the 
afternoon, as her mother chanced to be looking out of 
the rear window into the garden, she saw the child 
working away with a little flower-spade, digging a 
small, deep hole in the ground. The mother watched 
for a while, and then went down to her and said, 



WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 359 

" Mattie, my child, what are you doing ?" Mattie 
blushed. Already she had deposited in the ground a 
letter, and was throwing the fresh dirt upon it. She 
was embarrassed at her mother's question. She feared 
that she could not quite explain herself. In explanation 
she at length confessed that she wanted that " letter to 
go to God." She had secretly written, praying and 
entreating her heavenly Father to influence her father 
and mother so that they would consent to buy that 
beautiful ring for her. Her plan was, to send a letter 
" through the grave to God." 

Now Mattie got the splendid ring ; but I think she 
was never quite certain whether it came in consequence 
of having "buried" the letter or not. She did not then see 
why a letter could not go to God through the earth. But 
in the course of the same year little Mattie had impressed 
upon her mind a beautiful dream. She told it next 
morning with a full rose in her cheeks and a new light 
in her eyes. She saw her playmate! She was in a 
beautiful place, standing by the side of a great silvery 
sea. The water was shining and twinkling in every 
part like a lake of white light. She said it seemed that 
the sun was sending a golden shimmer through the vast 
space of glittering waters. Mattie described the scene 
very finely, and said that her playmate was standing up 
there and sending kisses to her way down that silvery 
river. She declared that she felt every kiss as it fell 
upon her lips ! And then she added, " She told me that 
I need not bury anything to go up there, and that I 
would myself come there and play with her in that 
beautiful place." 

Now this little girl knew nothing whatever of the 



360 MORNING LECTURES. 

Summer-Land. I was at that time a great many leagues 
away ; and her mother, whom I knew, was very cautious 
to never so much as "whisper" the slightest word 
favorable to truths of the Harmonial dispensation. 

Visions like Mattie's have been duplicated and tri- 
plicated over and over throughout this new country. 
Of course they have been modified and varied in a large 
variety of ways, but the testimony from different minds 
is invariably the same — viz.: that there are up there 
lands, rivers, mansions in the Father's house, temples 
of beauty in the home of the living God ; that countless 
people live there as naturally as they do here — with the 
difference that up there are not the earthly customs, nor 
this routine of daily fret and fight for physical necessi- 
ties, neither a continuation of the vexations consequent 
upon men's spurious desires and appetites. Yes, kisses 
have been sent down the shining rivers to the lips of 
many human hearts. 

A little girl in Bridgeport, in 1853 was moved to 
utter words of wisdom which only an archangel could 
authorize. She spoke under a celestial afflatus from the 
Summer-Land. " Fools confound the wise, 55 when the 
former are under the inspiration of heavenly minds. 
Thus, sometimes, the most ignorant grow wise in ten 
brief minutes. All such mediums and spontaneous 
" sensitives' 5 describe rivers of light ! This is supposed 
by materialists to be poetry. They are right. It is 
poetry. In essence all poetry is immutable truth, and 
essentially false imagination is a philosophical impossi- 
bility. Take the crudest and most grotesque supersti- 
tions of the past, and at their deepest heart you will 
find, if your own ability to discern is deep enough, reve- 



WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 361 

lations " pure and undefiled" of the realities and inhabit- 
ants of the Beyond. 

I have frequently called your attention to the 
naturalness of the Summer-Land. Its reality is among 
the philosophical discoveries of the present out-folding 
century. The most ancient Spiritualists, in the very 
earliest centuries, be it ever remembered, gave inspired 
sentences, and made intuitive statements, and wrote fine 
revelations of these same celestial wonders and post- 
mundane verities. 

Let us now contemplate some of the " Scenes" in the 
Beautiful Land. Approaching the shining shore upon 
one of these silvery rivers, that sets out from the southern 
extremity of this globe, you behold thousands of " Pira- 
dela," or grottoes and natural temples of clustering 
foliage, vines, and flowers, closely resembling lace- 
worked chapels. In these peculiar pagodas, or family 
prayer-grottoes, you behold persons who still believe in 
Amraon Ra, the original Egyptian name and conception 
of the Supreme Being. I have already mentioned that 
the Egyptians had chosen a star," Guptarion," and that 
they have long seasons of worship, of joy and festivity, 
equal to an hundred years of restful Sabbaths, or as 
long as the star of their choice, Guptarion, shines over 
that particular portion of the Summer-Land. When 
the great star (sun) of their destiny sinks out of their 
Bight, they cease their worshipings and festivities and 
return to other and less religious interests. They are 
about the same people they were while living in the 
valley of the Nile ; only they are now in a higher 
Egypt, clothed in spiritual bodies. Many of them con- 
16 



362 MORNING LECTURES. i 

tinue their old-time worship just as though they would 
always remain Egyptians. 

It is marvelous how immobile and persistent are 
some of the human temperaments! In some races they 
yield almost nothing in the course of a thousand years. 
The prevalence of other opinions, other thoughts, and 
other conceptions, exert no remodeling effect in some 
minds. 

Now many persons think this statement is unreal. 
Well, look at the Jews of this generation. Are they 
not still the Jews that they were eighteen hundred years 
ago ? The variations and improvements are very slight. 
The Rabbinites and the Talmudians are the same. Look 
at their physiognomy, too, and look at the combinations 
of their characteristics, their inclinations in religion and 
in trade, and you will find them the same unaltered 
people. Or, look at the Roman Catholics. You may 
think that they are greatly modified. No, they arje not. 
There has scarcely been an alteration in them from the 
first days of their faith. Those who come to this coun- 
try, are occasionally modified by Protestant influences. 
But the great Catholic establishment is characterized 
by a constitutional immobility. It is based in the fixed 
temperaments of those peculiar minds who belong to it. 
Protestants still revert to the Catholic Church. Such 
minds belong to the sphere of authority. They believe 
in religious system, and they seek and find it in the 
original establishment. They believe that Protestant- 
ism is all afloat; that there must be some " ty'ing-up 
place," or there will come chaos and destruction in 
morals and religion. Such persons need some place of 
discipline and worship where they can " hire their 



WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAM). 363 

thinking done for them," according to-authority extend- 
ing backward over centuries to holy Saints and holy 
Fathers whom no Protestant ever undertakes to impeach. 
In this way this state of mind becomes fixed and im- 
mobile. 

Now suppose such a person should die: what is the 
next step ? Are such minds instantly changed ? Are 
they ever suddenly re-molded from within ? True, they 
are changed from a natural body into a spiritual body 
in " the twinkling of an eye." But are tfrey not the 
same persons, with the same education, and influenced 
by their long-accustomed thoughts ? Many such after 
death still believe that somewhere, beyond the bright 
fields of beauty, and even beyond the trials of purgatory, 
they will find the burning pit. They frequently think 
that if they should walk off but a few hundred leagues, 
they would find something worse than purgatory. They 
naturally enough understand that they are in purga- 
tory, and thus the fact dawns slowly upon them, that 
they are in their appropriate private places, and are 
receiving the just discipline of Progress in the moral 
government of God. 

So these ancient Egyptians, born in the valley of 
the Nile — strange children of a strange, sandy, symbolic 
country — erect countless little " pyrainidalia," or tem- 
ples of festivity and worship, dedicated to their long- 
chosen planet Sirius — sometimes called the dog-star ; 
but up there they name it " Guptarion" — a large sun in 
the distant heavens, which our astronomers call a "star 
of the first magnitude." It rises and sets in the firma- 
ment over the Summer-Land once in twenty-seven of 
our centuries ! Suppose a bright orb about one-tenth 



364 MORNING LECTURES. 

of the apparent size of our sun, rising and shedding its 
rays over a particular portion of the Beautiful World, 
and you get a conception of the star of destiny in the 
Egyptian Brotherhood. The pyramidalia are natural 
vine-draped grottoes grouped along the shore of a deep 
river that branches from the one which flows thither 
from our globe. 

You will keep in memory how this earth of ours 
sends off its main celestial river which flows off south- 
wardly in the upper air, and which, being a magnetic 
combination of imponderable elements, ascends very 
gracefully in the channel of its flight, terminating and 
mingling with the silvery sea that bounds the Summer- 
Land. The planet-rivers flow through the vast expanse 
of sea as the Gulf Stream flows through the Atlantic 
Ocean. Thus through this vast celestial sea of mag- 
netic atmosphere the planetary streams flow directly to 
the shining shores of the Summer-Land ; but nearest to 
that shore which is nearest the earth, and along the 
inland lake called " Mornia," which is filled with 
attractive islands, you will find these embowered chap- 
els and prayer-grottoes of the Egyptians. 

In 1853 I was enabled for the first time to see 
them. I continued to investigate and to make inquiries 
until I got at the motive for the cultivation and con- 
tinuation of these pyramidalia. They said that those 
fragrant floral structures are little statuettes, or minia- 
ture pyramids, dedicated to the celebrated dog-star, 
Sirius, or " Guptarion," being the accredited home of 
Ammon Ra. 

I seem to be impressed with the desire to urge upon 
your understanding the entire naturalness of the next 



WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 365 

state of human existence. It seems desirable that you 
should see that the inhabitants there live in harmonious 
accord with each other, because of the omniscient sys- 
tem which is adapted to the infinite varieties of human 
character and consequent diversities of destiny. When 
you arrive there — and you may embark thither before 
the end of this year — you will not be a stranger, for 
you will have cultivated some prescience of the " house" 
constructed with different " mansions." 

Have you not had fore-gleams and intuitions of what 
I now relate ? Have you never had thoughts or impres- 
sions — in your dreams and visions of the night — of 
floating or flying through the air ? If the thousands of 
seeresses and clairvoyants and true dreamers could rise 
up to-day and relate their " experiences," I should have 
unimpeachable accumulative testimony, sufficient to over- 
whelm all the skeptical clergymen and logical lawyers 
in the wide world. 

You occasionally read the New Testament, do you 
not? I suppose that you believe somewhat in the 
Pentecostal experience which is therein recorded. It 
seemed that, in that joyful day, they all arose from their 
seats — and then what ? They spoke in " unknown 
tongues" ! Of course unknown tongues were»tongues not 
understood. The manifestation must have been gib- 
berish and fanatical to those who witnessed and 
recorded the circumstances. 

Suppose that in these days there should be a public 
repetition of that ancient spiritual " experience." In- 
stantly some mediums would begin to discourse in Per- 
sian, others in Indian, others in Chinese, others in 
Japanese, others in Latin, others in Greek — would it 



366 MORNING LECTURES. 

not be " all Greek" to the most of us, and more espe- 
cially to spectators and non-sympathizing minds ? What 
would we say ? And what would the people say ? This: 
"Give us something that we can all understand." Yes, 
that would be the popular demand. But just step back 
into the New Testament and read the statement over 
again. In Pentecostal times or seasons there was "a 
general uprising or condescension of the celestial spirit.* 
" The spirit of the Lord" was poured out without stint. 
Of course you know {hat every sweet or powerful influ- 
ence from the firmament was called the " spirit of the 
Lord." Influences from the concentrated minds of 
millions in the Summer-Land could cause the largest 
human audience to rise to their feet in an instant. Then 
would occur manifestations according to individual gifts. 
Some would exercise the magnetic power and make 
passes over the sick ; others would hasten off on sweet 
missions of mercy ; some would declaim in unknown 
tongues ; while others would fall prostrate and swoon 
into a trance, and physicians would say, " Oh, that is 
only excitement and hysteria." And all this would be 
analogous — identical — with what you so reverently read 
in your Testament. Now if this Bible statement be 
true, it is interesting and applicable to us only just so 
far as it is known and corroborated by spiritual expe- 
rience in the manifestations of these days. 

If modern minds were consulted, many would say, 
" we have seen something of what you relate." " In the 
visions of the night, when deep sleep cometh upon men," 
many a sensitive soul would say, "I have seen beauti- 
ful landscapes." These visions come and depart sud- 
denly. Sometimes, indeed, they are nothing but the 



winter-land and summer-land. 367 

play of a fertile ideality ; but in most instances they are 
real glimpses of scenes in the Summer-Land. True, you 
might imagine a tree to be where there is no tree : but 
your ideality obtained its first lesson from seeing a tree 
which was real. One man may be able to imagine in 
his dreams just what another man cannot imagine with- 
out first seeing. So that the one man would have an 
actual objective experience, and the other only an ideal 
subjective experience. And it is philosophical that 
there should first be an object outside to impress the 
surfaces of the mind with a correct notion of its exist- 
ence. 

Certain constituted minds go into the " superior 
state" in the natural slumber of the night, and never 
during their ordinary and waking condition. Never, 
during the day, can such minds be quiet enough. But 
at night, when all is very still, then the sensitive mind 
and soul for the first time have an opportunity to realize 
a sort of independence of material surroundings, then 
the person's spirit rises up from beneath and attains to 
a finer state of thought and feeling. This higher con- 
ception of spirit-life comes through a vision. But when 
morning comes, and the business of the world is' 
resumed, the dream may not remain to cheer the weary 
heart. But if the same person should enter a corre- 
sponding state, even if it be after the lapse of weeks or 
months, the mind will instantly revert to and go on with 
the corresponding previous experience. The long time 
which may have elapsed between the two experiences, 
does not break the chain. To the spirit, years seem 
like fleeting moments; for spirit, you will remember, 

" Lives in deeds, not years ; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial." 



368 MORNING LECTURES. 

The spirit realizes no time between an experience of ten 
years ago and a corresponding experience of last night 
or to-day. 

Once I stood, while in the clairvoyant state, by the 
overwhelmed brain of a large man in an apoplectic fit. I 
examined him both physically and spiritually. I watched 
by his bedside until he recovered from the apoplexy. 
Being in clairvoyance, I saw the working of his spirit, 
and could easily understand the state of his mind. He 
had, in the midst of his sufferings, a clear and truthful 
vision of the Summer-Land ! When he recovered from 
the fit and came out of " the state," he knew nothing of 
what had happened. And I too, at that time, when I 
came out of the magnetic state, did not recollect what 
I had seen. (I remember everything now.) In the 
clairvoyant state, subsequently, I examined him a second 
time. He was then in a deep coma. I plainly saw 
what he was seeing, and might have felt what he was 
feeling. His mind was connecting the experience of 
six months previous with his present vision. He saw 
his heart's own happy companion — the loved wife who 
had gone before him — coming to welcome his spirit up 
the shining way. He saw the beauty of her coming, 
and I saw the beauty of her coming. The doctor put 
his ear down to the sick man's mouth to catch his 
whisperings. A joyful thought tried to gain utterance 
through his paralyzed physical organs. He wanted to 
tell his vision. But in a few moments he passed into 
the Summer-Land. Before he went he did not realize 
the six months which had intervened between his first 
and second vision of the silvery rivers and the scenes of 
immortal beauty. 



WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 369 

A traveler may suddenly turn a corner in a new 
road and see a house and bridge before him, a few 
trees, a stream pouring through the grassy meadow,, and 
some farm-houses in the distance, and, though the road 
and the country are really new to him, somehow the 
whole scene is familiar to his eyes. He knows that he 
never saw it with his physical eyes before, and yet he 
is not surprised. He is surprised only when he realizes 
that he was never in that region before. Now I find 
that the picture of that scene was perfectly transferred 
to the sensitive canvas of his faculties while his body 
was in a deep sleep in the night-time. While in your 
" superior state," your spirit takes on its impressions of 
distant objects and scenery. This experience has misled 
many into the hypothesis of pre-existence. 

So the life of the spirit is natural. Your spirit does 
not realize any difference in feeling, whether you are 
dreaming or in a state of wakefulness. You travel 
about in the sleep-state just the same as though you 
were awake and in open day. You visit people, you go 
into houses, you cross rivers, or take a long voyage, 
just as satisfactorily as though you had your physical 
body around you. Now this experience arises from a 
projection of your consciousness into the open world 
about you. This will explain the wondrous phenomena 
of the whole interior life. It 'may not explain the pri- 
vate double-consciousness of some persons. One mind 
may see a real tree, another mind may imagine a tree 
to be where no tree is ; but the latter is a subject of 
impression in which a tree is involved. 

Some peculiarly organized minds have the most hor- 
rible dreams. Such dreams are reflections from the 



370 MORNING LECTURES. 

structure and state of their minds. And there are per- 
sons who live rightly and abstemiously, who also have 
horrible dreams. Why is this ? Because they have not 
yet outgrown or overcome the influences from the tem- 
peraments of their ancestors. They are representatives 
of branches of temperamental roots, which go far back 
and down in the ancestral soil. They still vibrate and 
pulsate in the living generations. This fully accounts 
for the " night thoughts" of many who are pure and 
beautiful, and who think beautiful thoughts during the 
daytime. These same persons sometimes dream the 
most repulsive dreams. Ancestors predominate in their 
personal consciousness, and they have not will-power 
sufficient to keep down the rising hereditary impressions, 
especially during the less guarded hours of slumber. 

-Already I have said something concerning the 
" battle between the spirit and its circumstances," 
showing how all may acquire the power of conquering 
the unpleasant inheritance from their ancestors. I have 
somewhat conquered the discordant temperaments of 
my ancestors. (I do not know who they remotely 
were, and I am not anxious to know.) I have a fair- 
minded, honorable father yet in this world, and I know 
that I had a true, and sweet, and beautiful, and saintly 
mother, who now resides in a celestial community. But 
there were certain hereditary influences and predispo- 
sitions which I found absolutely in my spirit's way. 
Those inheritances stood sternly up in my presence some- 
times when I wished most to be utterly quiet. When 
I would gather spiritual strength and restore my 
exhausted physical powers, then up would come some 
hereditary " imp of darkness," who would propose to 



WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 371 

carry me into discordant thoughts and scenes. At such 
times I would dream that I was where strange, mur- 
derous-looking people were secreting themselves in 
dark passages, or some other equally unpleasant dream- 
ing. It has been so with some of you. You need not 
claim that you have always had harmonious, splendid, 
and attractive dreams. Human nature is organized on 
identical principles. And the action of the human 
faculties, under a given set of circumstances, is the 
same, and the experiences arising from such action is 
the same in all structures of mind. 

Some men think there is essential truth in astrology. 
Well, I once visited an astrologer, with a desire to test 
the possibilities of destiny. A distinguished professor 
described to me the influences of the several stars. He 
drew my horoscope, according to the day and hour of 
my birth, and then went on to tell when I was sick, or 
when I should have been ; that- certain planets were my 
ruling stars, both for weal and for woe ; and that when 
certain planets came into conjunction with the body of 
Mars, <fec, that certain things would be likely to happen 
to me— whereupon I concluded that I would not be 
steered in my individual career by the stars, and I have 
not been. The very star that was astrologically fixed to 
rule my private destiny I forthwith put out of my house. 
I would not have a star intercepting the orbit of my 
individuality. Therefore the events that astrologically 
were to happen to me, have not occurred in the slightest 
degree. 

Thus I teach you self-possession, although I believe 
that every great soul will best succeed by steering and 
steadying himself by the stars. Keep down the disa- 



372 MORNING LECTURES. 

greeable which you have received from your ancestors. 
Prune away among your roots and branches. Expei 
old discords from your minds, and you will then have 
the satisfaction of knowing that your dreams are at 
least your own. And from this starting-point you can 
go right onward 4;o solid facts in your mental opera- 
tions. 

What is important to the speedy accomplishment -of 
this result ? First of all, physiology : correct habits of 
eating, drinking, working, and resting. If you eat 
this, that, and the other thing, it will, to some extent, 
appear in your nervous force. Wrong conditions in 
your nervo-vital energies will, induce your faculties to 
produce unpleasant dreams. As soon as you know what 
is obstructional, you can and ought to remove it. My 
investigations are all between six o'clock in the morn- 
ing and twelve o'clock of the day. At night I do not 
dream. I sleep then. If there are any persons present, 
who, as witnesses, heard the lectures given in " Nature's 
Divine Revelations," they will remember that though 
three or four days might have intervened between two 
discourses, yet sometimes the first words would finish a 
sentence which perhaps was left incomplete at the end 
of the previous lecture, and the thought would be thus 
fully expressed — showing that the spirit keeps no 
account of time, but takes cognizance only of events, 
feelings, thoughts, ideas, and principles. 

Many have seen the places and the scenes which I 
have been describing. I hear mediums mention spiritual 
things and describe scenery, and I recognize them as 
things and scenes which I have seen. If a man tells 
you that he saw Central Park, and that he entered at a 



WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 373 

certain gate, which he truthfully describes, then you 
say, " That is true, for I have seen it myself." In like 
manner I have had convincing testimony that others 
have seen the Summer-Land. 

Auloania is the name of the island which was ages 
ago dedicated to those Greeks who steadfastly believe 
in many Gods — the polytheists. Auloania is still devoted 
to poetry, rhetoric, history, the ode, and to music. The 
winding, dancing, silvery river, which flows around this 
island, is named Sil-Miral, meaning a hymn, or an 
anthem. It sings songs like pine trees. In certain 
seasons, or under the influence of certain breezes, it 
gives off hymnal melody — rich, varied harmonies, and 
asolian. mournful symphonies. Myriads of song-birds 
live and sing in that region, as the birds live and sing 
on earth when the warm days of spring come o'er 
mountain and plain. The birds, of highest beauty, by 
thousands enter into the aeolian symphonies and mourn- 
ful melodies of the beautiful Sil-Miral. 

Vivium is the name of a golden, fountainous spring, 
on the island of Auloania. I have seen it many times. 
You will see it in some of your spiritual dreams. Put 
down the errors in the temperaments inherited from 
your ancestors. Become natural, and substantial, and 
wholly yourself. You cannot enter the " superior 
state 5 ' by any way less straight. Become healthy in 
your inmost; then you will see the Summer-Land in 
visions of the night. You read in your religious book 
about " the Dayspring from on high," and you think it 
<4s a beautiful figure of speech. But I find that there is 
something corresponding tt) it in the fields and islands 
surrounding the house with many mansions. Suppose 



374 MORNING LECTURES. 

I should say that " Innocence is represented by a lamb." 
Now you read about the " Lamb of God;" but is there 
not also an animal known as a lamb? And in like 
manner may not the fountainous Vivium-r— the dayspring 
on high — be something more than a mere figure of 
speech ? Has not every figurative expression a cor- 
responding literal side? 

The scenes of the Second Sphere are reflected upon 
the human mind whenever it is accessible and impressi- 
ble. It is accomplished either by our own clairvoyant 
powers to rise into sight and sympathy with them, or 
else by the artistic pencilings upon our faculties by 
those who are our invisible guardians. They either do 
it for us, or else they kindly clear the celestial way, so 
that our own impressibility may invite and secure the 
picture. 

I would now like to tell you about the Elgario, as 
they call the plant of sorrow. In the Summer-Land 
there are melancholy characters, who seem disposed to 
remember and dwell upon the exceedingly hard times 
they experienced on the earth. They look like very 
badly abused people ; were not appreciated before 
death, and are not happy. They are downcast and sad 
for a while, being indulgent of feelings of melancholy, 
like certain unfortunates in our lunatic asylums. But 
this wondrous celestial plant, which the botanists of 
that region call JElgario, is their sweet medicine and 
perfect antidote. The sad ones are led to it. They 
soon begin to inhale its fragrance. They breathe its 
atmosphere. They chew it a little every day. They 
soon know this flower is for t&e healing of God's heart- 
stricken children. They carry its petals and are 



WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 375 

influenced by them. The plant exerts a mystic charm. 
They make bouquets of it, and it relieves them of their 
earthborn mishaps and long-cherished sorrows. 

Is not this revelation also natural, beautiful, and 
simple? Your gifted guardian will bring the Elgario 
to you and say : " Take this, my beloved; smell of its 
holy breath ; its odor will quickly relieve your aching 
heart." Why, a homeopathic physician, when treating 
a patient for a disease in the throat or lungs, may, 
perhaps, wish to administer phosphorus. He knows 
that the odor of phosphorus will sometimes relieve a 
severe stricture. Thus the higher physicians hand 
forth this beautiful plant to spirits depressed with 
earth-born errors and misfortune. They give it to 
their patients, and lo ! its odor heals and translates 
them into a healthy, happy, and comparatively superior 
state. 

Thus sometimes beautiful " births" take place — 
births out of states of confirmed despondency. A 
mother, for example, in order to feed and clothe her 
children, has been overworked. She has literally 
worked herself to death for the sake of her dependent 
family. She at last died from excessive bodily fatigue 
and heart-broken weariness. She is borne away on 
the silvery river to the Summer-Land ; but she is still 
weary ! This beautiful plant is brought to her, or she 
is conducted to the garden that is filled with it. 
Gradually it lifts her into her " superior state." After 
a time she realizes somewhat of heavenly co'infort, sweet 
and pure ; and in the flow of the ensuing seasons, she 
begins to believe that 



376 MORNING LECTURES. 

" There is a land of pure delight, 
Where saints immortal reign ; 
Eternal day excludes the night, 
And pleasures banish pain." 

From her refreshened memory she says, " I used to 
sing that song, when I was a girl, in the Methodist 
Sunday-school, and in our Bible-class meetings. Then 
it was only words; now it is all so real. 55 She looks 
about and sees her old neighborhood acquaintances and 
loved friends. She finds them in the " Father's house,' 5 
where there are " many mansions. 55 If it were not so, 
the seers would have told you. 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER- 
LAND. 



" Get but the truth once uttered, and 'tis like 
A new-born star, that drops into its place, 
And which once circling in its placid round, 
Not all the tumult of the earth can shake/' 

The several languages called " dead" in this world, 
have certain roots which push themselves vigorously up 
through the memory-soils of the human mind and con- 
tinue to bear fruit after death. Thus the Hebrews, 
Arabians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians, Grecians, 
Komans, Celts, even the Scots and Picts, and various 
other smaller tribes and semi-nations, continue for a 
long time to to speak the educational language of their 
earth-life, and to cherish thoughts that flow through 
such verbiage ; and often when such spirits have sought 
to communicate with impressible or congenial persons 
on the earth, they have succeeded in controlling medi- 
ums, so that the communication would be imparted in 
their native tongue. The celebrated Professor Buchanan, 
of Cincinnati, testifies that he heard in the City of 
Cleveland, ten years ago, an uneducated American 
lady discourse finely in French. And it was reported 
that Mr. Selden J. Finney, in the same city, and, I 



378 MORNING LECTURES. 

believe, on the same occasion, uttered a glorious poem 
in the Indian language, which, it was said, was per- 
fectly well understood by an Indian who chanced to be 
present. 

I know how most people feel and think with refer- 
ence to these trans-terrestrial questions — that after 
death" all is different with the individual." There 
never was a greater mistake. You might as well 
suppose that Mother-nature, and God-nature, and Man- 
nature undergo radical transmigrations and recon- 
structions. Quite otherwise. There are no essential 
changes in the plan of ultimates. The final type of 
organization, remember, is the spiritual interior of Man 
and Woman. Both reason and intuition sustain the 
doctrine of no central change after death/ The Bible 
says : " As a tree falleth, so it lieth." That is, an oak 
tree does not become a peach, a birch, or a mahogany, 
the moment it falls. It is an oak tree still. Even so 
if man's body falls, in sympathy with the chemistry and 
gravitation of the physical word, the spiritual man does 
not fall with it. Only the external casing is peeled off 
and rejected, while the personal-inmost, who thought 
and spoke and acted before, goes onward, unchanged 
and individualized, to the Summer-Land. 

It is the lesson of the naturalness of the After-life, 
which the mind must fully conceive in order to realize 
that the other world is really a " home in the heavens." 
Earthlings will not be orphans or strangers there. I 
must know and recognize my acquaintances, and they 
must know and recognize me, a hundred, a thousand, a 
million years from this, yea, an eternity hence, or immor- 
tality is nothing. The cessation of leading personal 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 379 

peculiarities and the reconstruction or abolishment of 
the essential traits of the individual organization — the 
mergement of the person at death from substantiality 
into a vapory, gauzy, ghostly inhabitant of the kingdom 
of heaven, there to dwell and sing and adore forever 
in the presence of the wifeless Trinity — is a supposition 
too absurd to occupy intelligent minds, being a concep- 
tion eminently suited to the brainless cranium of old- 
time orthodoxy. And yet there are ministers who seem 
to pride themselves upon their profound ignorance on 
this subject, saying : « It is an unlawful mystery ; it is 
supernatural." In other things those same pulpitarians 
are just as sensible as fellow-sinners in general. But 
come to this subject, and forthwith, with a slam, the 
gate of investigation is shut, and you are driven to the 
authoritarian's " faith," which they invariably present 
as the best antidote for heart-bereavements and spiritual 
prostrations. 

Now the after-existence opens before us as a con- 
tinuation of individual progression. Instead of being a 
" discrete degree," as Swedenborg describes it, it is 
seen to be another mansion, another story, in the same 
house " eternal in the heavens." The heavens are not 
remote. The earth itself is situated and rolling noise- 
lessly "in the heavens." Do you not know that it 
travels from January to July about ninety-seven millions 
of miles, and directly through " the heavens" ? Else 
how could the earth move in its path around the sun ? 
You see, therefore, that the earth itself is " in the 
heavens" ; and, reversely, that " the heavens" are about 
the earth. We float at the rate of sixty-four thousand 
miles an hour round the sun, which is not more really 



380 MORNING LECTURES. 

in " the heavens. 55 Now, I affirm that the Summer- 
Land is no more " in the heavens 55 than is our sun or 
this earth on which we at present reside. 

The mind of man is stationed over his visceral 
organs, which are immersed in darkness within the 
physical body. But there is a constant communication 
kept up between all parts of his body and his sensorium. 
Consequently the mental person who resides in the 
upper parts of the brain is omnipresent through the 
physical organs and sensations. In like manner*, the 
Second Sphere is so situated with reference to this earth, 
that we, its . inhabitants, float under the constant 
inspection of its population. This earth is analogous to 
a ponderous organ in the perfect and symmetrical 
anatomy of the stars. I think you will agree that this 
planet of ours may be, in general analogy, an " organ 55 
in the physiology of the sidereal system ; and that the 
celestial brain, which is the Summer-Land, caps and 
coronates all these different planets, just as the mind 
of man covers and crowns the different organs within 
the trunk. 

Earthly languages, perfected, carried out to their 
ultimates, and simplified to a fine, beautiful orthogra- 
phy, become the language of the other Sphere. But . 
education still sways the mind and thoughts. Suppose 
your affections are wrapped up with expressions peculiar 
to the German language, then, on reaching the higher 
Land, your memory (which is a spiritual organ,) holds 
not the English language, nor have you attachments for 
any other save that in which you were primarily edu- 
cated. So true is this, that persons who had been in 
the habit of using " profane language, 55 as it is called. 



1 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 381 

find themselves over-accustomed to expressing their 
thoughts and emotions through those worthless viaducts 
and conveyances; and such habits become serious impedi- 
ments and obstructions to progress, jus.t as in this world, 
when the coarse, vulgar-word speakers would enter 
refined society, they meet embarrassment because they 
cannot use profane language with their customary free- 
dom. If they use it constantly among ignorant men, 
they find themselves, when among educated persons, in a 
state of nervous trepidation lest the next moment they 
may stumble into the use of an oath. When thrown a 
little off their balance, they will involuntarily show that 
they are accustomed to very improper and very disa- 
greeable words. This you know is true in this world. 

Now look into k the Summer-Land, and you will find 
that the memory of many is checked when they come 
into the presence of finer and more educated organiza- 
tions. There is a tendency, even after death, to indulge 
in those mental habits in which the individual has been 
most strongly educated. Thus, the first form of speech 
is that which the person most used on earth. A friend, 
who recently died in the Union Army, took the first 
opportunity to make himself manifest, and expressed his 
thoughts in the peculiar language which he had been 
accustomed to use all the years before he went. 
Although he was situated in finer circumstances, and 
influenced by the example of finer associates, still his 
thoughts flowed along in their accustomed channels 
of conversation. His thoughts were finer and higher ; 
but they came down through the old verbiage. 

The second language used in the higher world is the 
language of Music. The spirit of this language is sepa- 



382 MORNING LECTURES. 

rated from the educational tendencies of the different 
races. The language of Music is employed in the teach- 
ing of what we call " Science." The truths of science, 
the beauties of science, and very high and glorious les- 
sons in celestial principles, are communicated by means 
of symphonies, melodies, songs, hymns, anthems, and 
chants. Hence the impression that heaven is a place of 
eternal song! This wondrous music fills the whole 
heavens and awakens echoes among the distant planets; 
so that, when the stars are touched and summoned to 
enter the orchestra and make the magnificent chorus 
full, then the very earth itself seems to vibrate respon- 
sively to that grand harmonious beat, which converts 
the universe into a harp of infinite perfection ! 

The third language used in the higher world is 
what we here call " the language of the Heart." It is, 
more properly speaking, the language of emanation. 
Every private affection throws out an atmosphere. 
Whatever your predominating love may be, it emits an 
atmosphere which winds itself about your person. And 
when the temperament is fine, sensitive, and susceptible, 
the odor and influence will correspond. If the indi- 
vidual is the victim of an inverted love — a iove turned 
out of its pure, native channel — he throws out upon you 
a coarse, vicious atmosphere, which in these days is 
called a " magnetic influence." Mediums, sensitives, and 
clairvoyants see it, and many persons not so gifted, /eeZ 
it, and they know not whence or why. " That person 
gives off a peculiar influence," you say ; " I feel it." It 
depresses you ; or, it makes you angry. Another per- 
son makes you feel "cheerful" and "happy" and "joy- 
ous;"' and you are physically quieted or spiritually 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 383 

aroused by mere contact with these more exalted cha- 
racters. 

In the Summer-Land this " language of the heart" 
is carried to an inconceivable degree qt perfection. For 
instance, suppose you and your brother, or you and 
your sister, should meet — you who have not met for 
long, lonely years. If you have outgrown the necessity 
of external speech, and if you have been taught through 
the mysterious suggestiveness of pure Music, you then 
deepen into the language of impersonal and perfect 
Love ! In the higher Spheres such language is alone the 
medium of communication. It is the language of abso- 
lute contact of personal love-atmospheres; by which is 
meant that two persons, meeting face to face, meet also 
heart to heart, and are forever friends. On earth it is 
but the hands, or eyes, or lips, that touch and speak. 
There, it is the indescribably sweet and perfect meeting 
of soul with soul. They thus inhale and thoroughly 
understand each other. For the first time there sweeps 
through the gladdened heart the eminent satisfaction 
of receiving perfect appreciation through the deathless 
wisdom of a brother, a sister, or a companion. Your 
most secret history is wordlessly told and forever 
known ; the details of your earth-life appreciated, and 
with all their innumerable bearings upon the shape of 
your character; and so, too, are comprehended all the 
steps that have brought you to that position in the upper 
existence ; so that the " communion" which takes place 
at that time extends through all the years, days, hours, 
events, and moments of your terrestrial pilgrimage. 
The delightfulness of this conjunction constitutes the 
beautiful, glorious happiness which diversifies, gladdens, 
and exalts the inhabitants of the Spheres. 



384 MORNING LECTURES. 

This interior, unspeakable language, is sometimes 
called ;; the language of Communion" — the unutterable 
speech of the immortals — which poets try in vain to 
reach and express ; which Music, with its unsearchable 
attributes and great powers, very nearly approaches. 
When your love is warmest and deepest, when you meet 
it in another, or when it meets you, then you catch the 
rudiments of this infinitely finer, this inexpressibly 
beautiful, this trans-mundane, this celestial, this heart- 
emanational conversation, which is so divinely-blissful, 
so spiritually-refreshing, and so exalting to all who 
dwell under its blessings in thq Summer-Land. Let it 
be once more affirmed that words are not the most elo- 
quent expressions of the Soul. There is no joy so intense 
as that which sparkles in the eye and crimsons the 
cheek, yet refuses the aid of the voice ; there is also 
" no grief like that which does^iot speak." Where the 
heart has a tale to tell, how poor are the utterances of 
the lips ! Need we these ever to tell us that we are 
loved ? Is there not something in arbitrary signs that 
breaks the spell of our sweetest feelings ? There is a 
mental electricity more mysterious far than the subtile 
fluid that thrills through material substances. Its con- 
ductors are the soft light of the human eye, the smile 
of the human lip, the tone of a subdued and earnest 
voice. Pleasant, indeed, is the solitude that is broken 
only by this silent speech. 

Concerning Traveling in the Summer-Land. Travel- 
ing there is, at first, just what it is here. Arrived, we 
use our legs and feet ; we see with our eyes ; hear with 
our ears ; and we also touch, and smell, and taste 
things, just as the very young child does on being intro- 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 385 

duced into this world. The mind of every one is 
interested at first in what is most external, and yet, 
what is called "external" there, is here even too deep 
for mankind's comprehension at the present time. When 
arrived there, you find yourself in possession of higher 
senses, in every respect similar to these, and with the 
same attributes and faculties, only more susceptible, and 
with the essential habits and inclinations of your cha- 
racter even more active. These all begin to call for their 
complete gratification. They lead you along the vernal 
margins of musical waters, or you traverse different beau- 
tiful fields, or away you go on attractive excursions — all 
in accordance with the most powerful necessities of the 
ever-active, never-dying, always youthful spirit. Now 
and then you meet persons who are still laboring with 
the effects of an earthly sadness. These undeveloped 
souls remain with organizations, or become members of 
Brotherhoods who have not yet arisen out of the 
depressions of terrestrial mishaps and imperfections. 
Every one goes to appropriate and congenial places. 

Let your mind be duly impressed with the fact that 
w great minds," so called while on earth, often lose 
what was considered the properties of their great 
"reputation." It is instantly stripped off from some 
of them, and they are not known, named, nor bowed to 
as " distinguished persons." Great men, so styled on 
earth, are of no consequence in the Summer-Land; 
neither king nor queen, nor prince nor princess, are 
known as such; for all go there clad in their true 
peri-spherical garments, and not in the costly habili- 
ments you procure at Stewart's. When arrived, you 
will appear dressed and adorned, plainly or otherwise, 
17 



386 MORNING LECTURES. 

in rigid accordance with your internal nature and 
status. Thus Henry Clay, when he reported himself in 
the city of New York more than ten years ago, said 
that his " great earthly (political) attainments had not 
availed him much/' This distinguished American gave 
a message to a number of personal friends. His com- 
munication, which was perfectly verified at the time, 
shows the mental condition in which the statesman 
found himself soon after his arrival. 

HENRY CLAY'S MESSAGE TO A NUMBER OF FRIENDS. 

In July, 1852, the following, with much more of 
high significance, was delivered: "My worldly wisdom 
availed me not when my new life commenced. It is 
very beautiful to become a little child again ; and now 
I understand the meaning of the words: fc Ye must be 
born again;' and in true sincerity and gratefulness I 
feel that 1 am born again — in a life where the vanities 
of earth have faded from my view, and the bright glo- 
ries of heaven are opening upon my soul. 

" soul made pure, be thankful for thy high estate, 
and adore thy God who hath endowed thine eyes with 
light, and thy soul with the ability to enjoy the pure 
beauties which crowd upon thy new existence ! And yet 
how 1 am overwhelmed with the foreshadowing of the 
glory which is yet in wait for me ! But now a form of 
brightness appears, and saith unto me: ' As thy day -is, 
so shall thy strength increase ; and thou shalt grow and 
wax stronger in the stature of wisdom and the might 
of love. 5 

"I am surrounded by those who are, like myself, 
exploring the wonders of this heavenly land. The 
realities become more and more transcendently sublime 
as we proceed. And the beauties of knowledge are 
increasingly unfolded; more vast and commanding 
becomes the wide-spread plain of glory, as we travel 
on in our heavenly path, guided by wisdom supreme 
and love unbounded." 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 387 

The mind is " overwhelmed,'" as Henry Clay- 
expresses it, with the unexpected naturalness of the 
post-mortem existence. Persons who read this, I think, 
will not be as much astonished as was the "Sage of 
Ashland," who ascended from the Old Kentucky State. 
He was not " astonished" in the Halls of Congress at 
Washington— he could easily grasp the great rising 
propositions before the Government of his country — but 
when he entered another mansion in the Father's house 
" not made with hands," then he became as " a little 
child, guided by wisdom and love." 

Persons sometimes change their views rapidly, and 
they hasten to return, saying that they have experienced 
a " change" in their convictions. Dr. Emmons, who 
was a preacher of the old-school doctrine of eternal 
punishment, comes back after having thoroughly investi- 
gated the geography and government of the Summer- 
Land, saying that there is no place hot enough to suit 
his sermons. 

A MESSAGE FROM DR. EMMONS, IN BOSTON, 1851. 
" Yoa of the earth may pretend and think you 
believe ever so strongly in eternal punishment; but 
when you bring it home to your own hearts, and those 
you love, the strongest terms you dare to use are : ; We 
leave them in God's hands. He doeth all things well!' 
Yea, verily, I respond to that with all my spirit 
powers — 4 God doeth all things well! 5 Amen and 
amen forever ! saith the spirit of Dr. Emmons. Does 
not that very remark imply a doubt in the minds of 
those that thus speak ? You could not better express 
your doubts, if you would;' your firmest, strongest 
believer in eternal punishment, dare not say of the one 
he loved : He or she hath gone to hell ! In plain words 
let us speak ; for you that believe it may not shrink* 



388 MORNING LECTURES. 

from speaking it. I was one of the old-school, a strong, 
• bold preacher of the doctrine of eternal punishment ; 
would that those sermons were buried in oblivion ! 
They are a curse to the world, a dishonor to the memory 
of him who could believe or utter such sentiments, a 
libel on the character of a just and holy God. And 
yet, as my spirit returns to the friends and scenes of 
my earthly days, often do I hear the words I uttered in 
life brought forth as the faith of a good old man ; and 
by those, too, who cherish my name and memory with 
almost holy reverence. I long to make my voice heard 
in tones of thunder, that they may know the truth, and 
not grope in darkness longer." 

Again, the celebrated American author, J. Fenni- 
more Cooper, in the year 1850, gained access to an 
elderly gentleman in Western New York, and reported 
in brief as follows : 

" I little thought, when, a few months ago, 1 was 

investigating the developments that were interesting 

some of my acquaintances, that I should so soon be 

seeking an opportunity to make my identity manifest. 

I was astonished at what I then witnessed, and was 

afraid to investigate, lest I should find true what others 

said, and what had been so marvelous to me, because I 

dreaded the scorn of those whose good opinion I valued. 

Hence, you see, I was not well prepared for a high 

mansion in the spirit-life ; for I felt ashamed to seek 

the truth wherever it might be found, and such cowards 

are not fitted for high enjoyments in the Spirit-World. 

Yet I was introduced into a state far better than I 

deserved, for which I feel thankful ; and that feeling 

of gratitude, as it is cultivated, I feel advances me. 55 

• 
Some spirits report themselves as they were, or as 

they appeared just before death, in order to satisfy their 

•remaining relatives that they are still in existence, and 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 389 

that death was not the extinguishment-of their person- 
ality. A remarkable case is reported by Professor 
Brittan, eleven years ago, showing how entirely simple, 
yet terribly impressive, is the method which some 
departed ones adopt, to cause their identity to be fully 
known to acquaintances who yet live in the body. 

CASE OF IDENTIFICATION. 
Mr. S. B. Brittan, in the year 1852, put on record 
the following: 

"Last winter, while spending a few days at the 
house of Mr. Rufus Elmer, Springfield, Mass., I became 

acquainted with Mr. H. , a medium. One evening 

H . Mr. and Mrs. Elmer, and myself, were engaged 

in general conversation, when — in a moment and most 

unexpectedly to us all — H was deeply entranced. 

A momentary silence ensued, when the medium said : 

'Hannah B is here. 3 I was surprised at the 

announcement; for I had not even thought of the per- 
son indicated for many days, perhaps weeks or months, 
and we parted for all time when I was but a little 
child. I remained silent ; but mentally inquired how 
I might be assured of the actual presence. Immediately 
the medium began to exhibit signs of the deepest anguish. 
Rising from his seat, he walked to and fro in the apart- 
ment, wringing his hands, and exhibiting a wild and 
frantic manner and expression. He groaned in spirit, 
and audibly, and often smote his forehead and uttered 
incoherent words of prayer. He addressed men in 
terms of tenderness, and sighed,* and uttered bitter 
lamentations. Ever and anon he gave utterance to 
expressions like the following : 

" < Oh, how dark ! What dismal clouds ! What a 
frightful chasm ! Deep — down — far down — ] see the 
fiery flood ! Hold ! Stay !. — Save them from the pit! 
I'm in a terrible labyrinth! I see no way out! 
There's no light! How wild! — gloomy ! The clouds 



390 MORNING LECTURES. 

roll in upon me ! The darkness deepens ! My head is 
whirling ! Where am I V 

" During this exciting scene, which lasted perhaps 
half an hour, I remained a silent spectator, the medium 
was unconscious, and the whole was inexplicable to Mr. 
and Mrs. Elmer. The circumstances occurred some twelve 
years before the birth of the medium. No person in all 
that region knew aught of the history of Hannah 

B , or that such a person ever existed. But to me 

the scene was one of peculiar and painful significance. 
The person referred to was highly gifted by Nature, 
and endowed with the tenderest sensibilities. She 
became insane from believing in the doctrine of endless 
punishment, and when I last saw her, the terrible 
reality, so graphically depicted in the scene I have 
attempted to describe, was present, in all its mournful 
details before me.*' 

Now, the testimony of Professor Brittan would 
probably be taken as unquestionable and trustworthy 
on any other subject, and perhaps at this late day his 
word will also be accepted in this direction. In the 
whole realm of psychology, or of sympathy of mind with 
mind, there is no known law that will explain the 
effects he delineates. But those who have held commu- 
nication with the Summer-Land, find that those who 
still earnestly desire to communicate, take the first 
opportunities to stamp the impression which would pro- 
duce the strongest conviction of personal identity upon 
the remaining relative or friend. I suppose there are 
two thousand instances, all of them substantiated so far 
as human testimony can go, showing that spirit-com- 
munications are "literal facts'' recorded in history 
beyond the possibility of refutation. 

Some minds who on earth were intellectually inter- 



LANGUlGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 39 1 

ested in " Ideas," on entering the Second Sphere, begin 
to communicate, as soon as possible, to impressible per- 
sons remaining, the fact that, in their cogitations, they 
had conceived of something like what they now behold, 
and that they are so glad to find that the realities of 
the higher life are even more gratifying than they had 
dared to expect. To illustrate this point, I refer you 
to the testimony of Margaret Fuller, given in 1852 — a 
year remarkable for the outpouring of this peculiar 
description of communications : 

TESTIMONY OF MARGARET FULLER, OTHERWISE 
COUNTESS OSSOLI, DEC. 5, 1852. 

" My sojourn on earth seems now as an indistinct 
dream, in comparison with the real life which I now 
enjoy. And I regard the raging of the elements which 
freed my dearest kindred and myself from our earthly 
bodies, as the means of opening to us the portals of 
immortality. And we behold that we were born 
again — born out of the flesh into the spirit. How sur- 
prised and overjoyed was I when I saw my new condi- 
tion ! The change was so sudden — so glorious — from 
mortality to* immortality — that at first I was unable to 
comprehend it. From the dark waves of the ocean — 
cold, and overcome with fatigue and terror — I emerged 
into a sphere of beauty and loveliness. How differently 
everything appeared! What an air of calmness and 
repose surrounded me ! How transparent and pure 
seemed the sky of living blue ! And how delightfully 
I inhaled the pure, life-giving atmosphere ! A dim- 
ming mist seemed to have fallen from my eyes — so calm 
and so beautiful in their perfection were all things 
which met my view. And then kind and loving friends • 
. approached me, with gentle words and sweet affection; 
and oh, I said within my soul, surely heaven is more 
truly the reality of loveliness than it was ever conceived 
to be by the most loving hearts! Already are my 



392 MORNING LECTURES. 

highest earthly impressions of beauty and happiness 
more than realized" 

Here you remark a vivid contrast between this 
communication of Margaret Ossoli's and that reported 
by Professor Brittan. In Margaret you see a mind 
retaining its characteristics in the transcendentally ideal. 
She reports the intense gratification which came over 
her idealizing faculties immediately on her introduction 
to the Better Land. But the other lady came back pur- 
posely to impress upon Mr. Brittan's thoughts and feel- 
ings the fact of her presence— not through ideality, but 
through the frightful gesticulations and paroxysms of a 
painfully-remembered insanity. 

Traveling in the post-mortem Sphere is at first just 
like pilgrimizing on earth. But the higher inhabitants 
have acquired what we shall never be able perfectly to 
imitate in this world. They have the power, without 
wings, to rise up and put themselves in harmony with 
the currents that sweep through the atmospheric spaces. 
With the spread of light they ride .on those currents 
millions and trillions of miles. It is accomplished by 
the marvelous power of inherent Will. The ability of 
the will to check the pulse is a promise of ultimate 
achievements. It is possible to develop and educate this 
inherent power of Will. By it, in this world, we lift 
our heavy bodies from beds or chairs, and cause them 
to move on the ground through low space. It is a men- 
tal power holding insensate muscles to its rule. This 
executive energy of the arisen human spirit, instead of 
wings, is the secret of its lightning (light. I do not say • 
that spirits travel by a continuous exertion of the will. 
They seek the upper currents by yill, somewhat like 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 393 

the balloon excursion which occurred some few years 
since between St. Louis and the northern part of this 
State. Professor Wise speaks positively of the exist- 
ence of an unvariable current, and thinks that if the 
venturesome aeronaut could strike it. he would be rapidly 
and safely carried from west to east. His first experi- 
ment was a failure, as &\\ first experiments usually are; 
but it sufficiently illustrates what is the universal method 
of traveling in the Summer-Land, when they depart on 
their far-away excursions. They gain that particular 
current which sweeps away through the spaces between 
the orbits of the planets, and which takes them " with 
the celerity of thought" to the destination which they 
desire to reach, however remote it may be from their 
point of departure. 

We shall not obtain that method in this life, save by 
uncertain balloons. We see the lesson and the example 
in birds. But that is done by a direct exertion of the 
will, and by sympathetic contact of their swift-moving 
wings with the electricity of the air — part float devel- 
oped by friction, and part momentum developed by Will. 
Just as a message of intelligence can be sent through 
space by vibrating the telegraphic current over thou- 
sands of miles, so the spirit-body and Will can, by the 
vibration of the celestial rivers which flow between the 
Summer-Land and the different planets, mount and float 
and ri'de upon them with inconceivable speed, and gain 
any desired destination. Traveling there is social. 

In the New Testament you read with wonderment 
and with longing the report of the Pentecostal expe- 
riences. How could such things be unless there were 
spirits invisible, who gathered as in convention, and, 
17* 



394 MORNING LECTUREST 

by one united effort, baptized with sublime zeal whole 
congregations of Spiritualists in Syria, in Palestine, in 
Rome, or wherever the upper Pentecostalians happened 
to be in contact with the lower assemblages of sympa- 
thizing and impressible minds. The spiritualistic con- 
gregations of the old time were supposed to be baptized 
by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit from the great 
Jehovah himself. That was the shortest explanation 
furnished by the converted Pharisees. They always 
furnished the most literal explanation of spiritual phe- 
nomena. Thus Moses imagined that he never could 
be visited by any power less exalted than the great 
Creator himself. That- was the Hebrew mistake. Many 
of them have not yet unlearned the error in this world; 
and some in the Summer-Land have not changed their 
sentiments. But the truth is, that a combination of 
minds, just like ourselves, coming in contact with earthly 
congregations, pour out the spirit of real love, uplifting, 
elevating, giving inward gladness and unity of feeling 
" in the bonds of peace." 

By permanent magnets I sometimes illustrate the 
law that spirits impart communications with whom they 
can enter into direct contact, and with none others. 
Hence some have passed all the way through life with- 
out receiving a single evidence that any such thing as 
a spirit exists; while others have felt it and known it 
from their earliest recollections. I well know that there 
are minds who have not felt the blissful influence of 
such spiritual contact, and of course, have no evidence 
\vhatever of the truth of these things. And yet such 
persons are many times helped and saved by proxies. 
Guardians cannot reach them, save through the agency 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 395 

of other parties — a succession of intermediates — the way 

a great variety of special providences come to pass. As 

an example, I give the case of an African woman, to 

show that the benevolent in the beautiful Brotherhoods 

of heaven still watch over the lowly and unhappy of 

earth : 

HOW A FAMISHING AFRICAN WOMAN AND CHILD 
WERE SAVED BY THEIR GUARDIANS. 

The case is cited from the Moral Instructor of 1850. 
It exhibits interposition, sympathy, and calculation, to 
a remarkable extent : " A lady medium in this city, 
whose name we are not at liberty to pronounce, while 
walking in the streets, in her usual physical and mental 
mood, was approached and'controlled by a spirit, caused 
to enter a bakery and purchase some victuals, thence led 
out of the city by a circuitous route into the suburbs, 
where she met a colored woman sitting by the roadside, 
weeping, with a small child by her side. She was 
traveling to find friends, and, destitute and exhausted, 
she had sunk despondingly down to bewail her condi- 
tion. Using the organ of the medium, the spirit said 
to the sufferer : ; Sister, why weepest thou V The reply, 
in substance, was, that she was away from friends, and 
had no means of procuring food for her famishing child 
— making no mention of her own privations. She said 
she had knocked at the doors of those who appeared 
abundantly able to bless, but had been refused even the 
morsels that fell from their tables, and now despaired 
of succor. The spirit then gave her the bread, telling 
her that her afflictions were known, and that he was an 
angel sent to minister to her wants. Overjoyed, the 
poor woman fell upon her knees, essaying to offer the 
spirit a prayer of thanksgiving. But he said : ' Thank 
not me, but God that sent me. ; 

"The medium was then conducted home, having 
been unconscious during most of the transaction, and 
retaining only an indistiuct recollection of the bakerv, 



396 MORNING .LECTURES. 

one or two points in her road, and the meeting with 
the woman." 

Many a man has been saved from committing sui- 
cide, by his guardians, by the intermediate method of 
approach. Why are not all men saved from their 
temptations and indiscretions? Because they can be 
neither directly nor intermediately reached. Of neces- 
sity all such must walk through great agony to a higher 
intellectual and moral condition. It is the impulse of 
their inward being. Guardian angels see that it is 
better for some children to fall down a whole flight of 
stairs than to be rescued; for the one sad accident or 
stumble may save them from the misfortune of forty 
other worse falls and blunders in the course of their 
lives. The saving and protecting arms are not thrown 
around some gentle natures simply because there is no 
contact. But what a beautiful law and system of 
providences are sometimes displayed! Here is an 
example : 

A MAN SAVED FROM SUICIDE BY THE INTERPOSITION 
OF HIS GUARDIANS. 
The following authentic case was reported by a 
New Haven gentleman, in 1852: " Many years ago a 
couple of gentlemen, who were room-mates, graduated 
at Yale College, and became ministers of the gospel. 
At an after period they settled in the ministry in dif- 
ferent States, and carried on a friendly epistolary cor- 
respondence during a large portion of their lives. One 
of them was in the habit of receiving impressions upon 
his mind of that vivid character which usually con- 
strained him to comply with the dictate of the moment, 
or suffer loss touching his wonted peace. And though 
he was seldom able to divine in advance what the result 
of his compliance would be, he was always obedient to 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 397 

the dictate, and afterward saw clearly that he had only 
done what duty or interest would have demanded. 

" Among the many occasions upon which he was 
called to act in obedience to this higher power, the fol- 
lowing is singular and instructive, and shows, in the 
language of Cowper, after he had been foiled twice on 
the same day in his attempts at self-destruction, that 
< God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to per- 
form' — that he accomplishes his purposes by ways and 
means unthought of by man. A vivid impression came 
over his mind that he must, without delay, get upon the 
back of his horse, and with all possible ^peed reach New 
Haven, a place which he had not seen since he left col- 
lege, and one that was many miles distant. As had 
been his custom, he was obedient to the impulse, and 
reached the place at the midnight hour of a dark night; 
and finding it greatly altered from what he had ever 
before seen it, and not descrying any suitable place to 
stop at, he was induced to ride to the door of a small 
house, in which he discovered a dim light at the attic 
window. After knocking and waiting a considerable 
length of time, he heard footsteps upon the stairway 
advancing slowly; soon it opened, and a man with a 
lamp in his hand, and with a stern countenance, and 
corresponding voice, demanded : 6 What do you want 
here at this unseasonable hour of the night? 5 The 
messenger of life, as he proved to be, replied : ' I can 
scarcely inform you what I came for; I am a stranger 
here ;' after which a short pause ensued, and the man 
with the lamp, in low and quivering accents, said: ; I 
will tell you what you came foe — it was to prevent me 
from committing the atrocious act of suicide ! When 
you knocked at this door, I was putting a. rope around 
my neck to hang myself! Your knock broke the spell, 
and I have now neither desire nor power to destroy 
, my life." 5 

Do you not read in the Testament that Saul, mounted 
on his horse and at the head of a vast army, was bent 



398 MORNING LECTURES. 

upon persecuting the Spiritualists of that day ? He was 
determined to ride them down and then exterminate 
them. When he had very nearly reached the point 
where the desperate conflict was to occur, the " scales'' 
began falling from his eyes, and he tumbled from his 
horse to the ground. He was taken away by some friends, 
and remained in an unconscious condition for some 
time. When he came to "himself," he was a convert 
to Spiritualism. He felt ashamed, and said he had 
been entirely in .the wrong— a short-sighted old sinner. 
Now what is the difference between a modern Spiritual 
case, put in modern language, and this ancifcnt case 
related in the New Testament? The law is identical. 
A combination of truth-lovers in the Spirit-Land, who 
are loyal to the Divine principles that regulate the uni- 
verse, directly accomplish these results which men call 
"special providences." The facts of the overthrow and 
rapid conversion of Paul are no more "mysterious," 
when analyzed in the light of modern Spiritualism, than 
was the modern transaction of saving the lone man from 
suicide. Neither can you say that the New Testament 
facts are better substantiated by witnesses than are the 
analogous facts of to-day. Here is another instance of 
special impression : 

AN ENGINEER IMPRESSED BY HIS GUARDIANS. 

The following statement was published in the Cale- 
do?iian, January, 1853, and is, therefore, testimony from 
an editor not committed to Spiritualism: "Mr. Butter- 
field, who was killed by the late unfortunate accident 
upon the Passumpsic Railroad, for a week or two before 
it occurred seemed impressed with the idea of some 
impending evil. He mentioned his impression to his 
-friends, appeared downcast, and did not wish to run an 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 399 

engine any more. Indeed, he had gone so far as to say 
that after that week he should leave the place he occu- 
pied on the road. He was ready to do anything else 
but. to act as an engineer. In passing up a i'ew days 
previous to that on which the accident took place, before 
it was daylight, he whistled for the train to 'break up,'. 
insisting that the fireman should go forward and examine 
the track; for he plainly saw the figure of a man moving 
slowly along. He also stopped at another, and about 
the same time, believing there was a man on the track. 
It turned out in both cases to be an illusion. If Mr. B. 
had been a timid and nervous man, these impressions 
would readily be accounted for, perhaps; but he was 
just the contrary — cheerful, cool, deliberate, and fear- 
less — so far even as to be remarkable for these quali- 
ties. His impressions, viewed in connection with his 
well- known character and melancholy end, are certainly 
mysterious, and we do not know how they are to be 
accounted for, unless it be that evil is sometimes por- 
tended to man by a superior intelligence." 

Spiritualists, instead of rejecting the Bible, find in 
its pages experiences that are identical with what in 
these days has become well-nigh universal. In the 
Apocalypse of John you read marvelous descriptions of 
events and awful things which would happen if there 
was a fair chance for such occurrences. Instead, why 
not take up some of the equally wonderful visions of 
Judge Edmonds? Why not read them and believe in 
them with the same unprejudiced eye and heart? If you 
look believingly back to Daniel or to Ezekiel to find 
prophecies, and if you next search the New Testament 
to find their fulfillments, why not also go faithftflly back 
eight or ten years ago and find whether it be not true 
that Judge Edmonds had a vision in which the present 
American Rebellion was predicted and depicted with 



400 MORNING LECTURES. 

wonderful clearness and exactness ? He gave it out 
with the conviction that it was simply a picturesque 
representation of the great battle between Error and 
Truth. But when it is read in connection with the 
current political history and experiences of to-day, it 
will appear as literal a prophecy of what has occurred, 
and is occurring in this country, as anything prophetic- 
al within the lids of Testaments : 

THE AMERICAN REBELLION FORETOLD IN A VISION 
BY JUDGE EDMONDS. 

In the New York Harmonial Advocate, published 
ten years ago, vol. 1., we find the following: "A 
vast plain is spread out before me, and far in the dis- 
tance a crowd of human beings. Above them is a vast 
banner, outspread all over them. Its groundwork is 
black, and its letters still blacker— the extract of black- 
ness itself. The wards inscribed upon it are : 'Super- 
stition, Slavery, Crime,' 1 forming, as it were, a half- 
circle. Many of those beings have smaller banners of 
the same material and device, which they hug closely to 
their bosoms, as if part of their very life. All have 
dark shades over their eyes. It is a sad picture — dark 
and melancholy ! 

" A broad battle-field is being spread. And dark 
beings, with their black banners, are coming out, arrayed 
for battle with brighter ones. The contest will be fearful. 
Those dark ones are confident in their numbers; for 
they are as a thousand to one. 

" But see ! there comes from that bright mountain a 
herald of light, and he cries aloud through all the 
nations, ' Which shall conquer — Truth, Liberty, and 
Progression, or Superstition, Slavery, and Crime ? His 
words are heralded in the air. How beautiful are his 
looks ! He is a spirit of light. His thrilling tones 
infuse new light into the brighter ones, and they rise 
with renewed energy, determined at last to conquer. 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 401 

" It is a mighty contest, and is to determine the fate 
of nations. All the base passions that have degraded 
humanity are awakening in their might, and rush on in 
their fury, battling for their very existence. 

" A more briliian.t beam of light shines from the 
faces of the progressed ones, showing the light and the 
life that are within them, and that are cheering them to 
the contest. 

"Now, lo! the view opens beyond the dark mount- 
ains, and behold there a glorious scene, where Love, 
Truth, and Wisdom are enthroned. I see the beautiful 
landscapes, dewy lawns, winding rivers, and rich pas- 
tures, and an atmosphere so sweet and balmy, that the 
spirit might dissolve itself in its loveliness. A race of 
spiritual beings inhabit there. An unearthly radiance 
flows from the brain of each, and is wafted up by unseen 
zephyrs to make the glorious light which shines from 
behind the dark mountains. 

" It is the home of Liberty, Truth, and Progression, 
and has sent forth its spirits, holding up that glorious 
banner. It is upheld by their unseen hands, and it is 
their brilliancy which casts the radiance on the inhabit- 
ants below. From that beautiful place they send forth 
spirits that whisper, in voiceless tones, encouragement 
and hope to those who battle in that strife." 

You will find nothing in the pages of Scripture, I 
repeat, more exactly descriptive of events which have 
occurred years after the vision was given to the world. 
But this is only one of five hundred prophecies, many 
of which are in my possession, sent for publication from 
Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois, and from different 
parts of New England. I know a gentleman who had 
rejected Spiritualism in toto — over five years ago — in 
consequence of these extravagant prophecies that there 
would be " a great war in this country," that " blood 
would flow," that the people " would have diseases," 



402 MORNING LECTURES. 

and that the " Government was to be broken," &a, &c. 
Prophetic communications of this strange character 
came to him very frequently. But the gentleman could 
not believe that we were to have « a war," in this 
peaceful country. He denounced the communications 
as unprofitable, and he would not further receive them. 
I met that gentleman not long since in this city, and he 
said : " I have repented. Those extravagant spiritual 
communications have all been literally fulfilled. There 
was no exaggeration in them." 

A MOTHER IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

The gifted poetess, Mrs. Hemans, communicated, 
December 25, lb52, a picturesque account of scenes in 
the social life of the angels. The following is a brief 
extract concerning a mother and her child : " How 
lovely she seems ! As she glides along, she holds in her 
arms an innoeent babe. What holy affection and 
chastened love is expressed in her countenance! She 
pauses and speaks, and caresses her babe, and says: 
'0 spirit, I have left my home on earth, and I have met 
my beloved babe already, and how joyful I am. But 
will you not send back to earth and tell my dearly 
loved friends how happy I am, and how useless is all 
their weeping for me? Oh, tell them I am learning 
the ways of peace and happiness; that 1 am preparing 
to receive and instruct them when they shall arrive 
here; that, although a mother's form has left the earth, 
a mother's love still shares all their hopes and joys. 
And oh ! bid them be hopeful and seek to have the love 
of God shed abroad in their hearts on earth, that I may 
be able to approach them on their entrance into the 
Spirit -World.' Happy, happy mother! bearing her 
babe in her arms, who had been brought to meet and 
comfort her on her upward journey. But mark how 
she pauses to send back a word of encouragement and 
hope to those who are left behind." 



LANGUAGE AND LIFE IX THE SUMMER-LAND. 403 

On another point she says : " The spirit, on enter- 
ing its next state, only becomes more awake — more 
sensitive to the realities which lie beyond its view; it 
but steps on another round of the ladder, which leads 
upward and onward to spheres of eternal love and 
unfolding wisdom. And by thy life here, man, dost 
thou make thy heaven fair and lovely, or thy existence 
dark and gloomy, until thou hast overcome thy errors 
by earnest labor." 

In conclusion, I wish to call your attention to 
persons in the Spirit -World who take great interest 
in exciting the hopes of humanity, and in holding up 
the banner of Progress and Reform. I have already 
given accounts of these public-spirited societies. I 
will give one out of hundreds of instances, of a com- 
munication to minds on earth, who were at the time 
somewhat despairing : 

TESTIMONY IN FAVOR OF FREEDOM. 

In November, 1852, Judge Edmonds reported the 
following from the Summer-Land : 6i This is the day 
when Freedom shall be known among the sons of 
humanity. This is the day when the chains shall fall 
from the oppressed spirit. This is the day when the 
pulse of humanity shall quicken with an inward life. 
And now shall the arm of man be made strong. Now 
shall the stream of truth brighten and deepen in its 
flow. Now shall the light of heaven grow clearer and 
brighter amid this glorious dawning. Prepare ye for 
the resurrection of humanity. Stand ye up in the 
strength and majesty of spiritual manhood. Let the 
scenes of earth no longer enthrall your senses and 
deaden the soul. A voice calls you to a higher des- 
tinv. It is the voice of Freedom breaking from the 
skies. Listen! not with your ears only, but with your 
souls. Listen! And in the deep silence of your inner 



404 MORNING LECTURES. 

being may ye find its earnest whisperings to lead you 
up beyond the vale of darkness, beyond the tumults of 
this lower sphere — to lead you up — up — far up in the 
pathway of unfolded angels, and give you strength to 
mount on high, as the eagle soars, to breathe the air 
of Freedom forever and ever." 



MATERIAL WORK FOR SPIRITUAL 
WORKERS. 



" This world is not a fleeting show, 

For man's illusion given ; 
He that hath soothed a widow's woe, 

Or wiped an orphan's tear, doth know 
There's something here of heaven." 

In relation to this subject it is deemed necessary to 
set forth three propositions : 

First, that the material and spiritual universes are 
regulated by immutable laws. Law is the external 
manifestation of principle ; a principle is the external 
manifestation of an idea ; an idea is the thoughtful, 
loveful life of Deity. 

Second, that man is 'endowed with a self-conscious 
power called Reason : Reason is the harmony of all his 
faculties, including the elements of affection and intui- 
tion ; by the exercise of this power he discovers the 
laws by which those universes are kept in unvarying 
order and irreversible harmony*. 

Third, that he is endowed with abilities and attri- 
butes to apply his discoveries to all the common condi- 
tions from which he proceeds, and of which he naturally 
is the governor and supreme head. 

The Infinite fountain is composed of ideas. Nothing 
could be more abstruse, more metaphysical and abstract, 
than the truth which is hidden within this statement. 



408 MORNING LECTURES. 

Most persons use the word "idea" according to the 
dictionary sense. An idea, in popular definition, is the 
form or conception or image in the mind of anything 
which you read about, or which you are thinking, or of 
something which is being related to you. To catch 
" an idea" is to get a definition of whatever may be 
presented for your reflection. That is not the sense in 
which the term is used in this discourse. The common 
definition is applicable to u thought." A thought in 
the mind is derived from a description, or by means of 
an object, a sound, a flavor, an odor ; in short, whatever 
may address you, through your senses, will evolve a 
thought among your faculties, and if that thought is 
coincident with and exactly representative of that which 
excited it, the result is a truth, or else a fact. From an 
accumulation of such facts and truths all positive sciences 
are developed and established. 

But such truths and such facts are not Ideas. If you 
have an idea, you have the essential life out of which 
ail things and thoughts spring. Clairvoyance is the 
ability to discern things alar off by coming in contact 
with the life of things, realizing their inherent essences, 
becoming instantly acquainted with the intelligent 
principles by which things roll out from unfathomable 
depths into the phenomenal universe. An idea within 
vegetation causes all this variety, not only of the form 
and growth, but also of the distribution of the colors 
and of the arrangement of the atoms which are insepa- 
rable from and coincident with those colors, and of the 
odors also which come with the colors and out of such 
an atomic arrangement. 

There is in the fields no chaos; nothing is left to 



MATERIAL WORK FOR SPIRITUAL WORKERS. 407 

chance ; all is system — harmony. Man's function is to 
learn the principles and ideas contained in the source ; 
to ascertain the scientific laws by which atoms, visible 
and indivisible, come into their present arrangements; 
and thence obtain the secret of the harmonies which 
pervade all the ways and works of Wisdom. Having 
made discoveries his next business is to reduce them to 
what is called " science." Science regulates the perceptive 
and intellectual parts of his mind — gives system, pro- 
portion, and regularity of action — by means of which 
system of thought and precision of procession he makes 
all his progress and expands his civilization. 

But the restless, progressive mind soon exhausts his 
discovery. He must go higher in the same direction, 
make further discoveries, and thence more beautiful 
expansions in Art, and more complete applications in 
common things. Having applied his new iacts to things, 
he exhausts them, or loses interest in them, and thus 
it becomes necessary that he should sow a new crop of 
discoveries. So he charges the soil with new fertilizing 
thoughts, and puts the old land to other uses. His 
restless, progressive mind, needs it ; for he is endowed 
with a wondrous variety of powers and functions and 
attributes, which must be gratified. 

The consequence of such awakening is that his mind 
is more than ever anxious for advancement. Humboldt 
could not rest in his study after having investigated the 
physical facts of a quarter of the globe. His discover- 
ies were accurate, so far as they went; but they were 
only doors to greater and grander things. Humboldt's 
mind is not at rest to-day ; he is still traveling and dis- 
covering sections in the " house not made with hands." 



408 MORNING LECTURES. 

His immortal feet press other hills and mountains; his 
new-lit eyes see other landscapes ; and his large mind 
is measuring new scenes of imperishable beauty and sig- 
nificance. Astronomers, too, do not soon rest. Having 
discovered one planet, they must discover another. The 
discovery of a hundred planets makes it necessary (for 
the feeding of such hungry minds) that two hundred 
shall be discovered. 

The time comes for the application. Then millions 
invest in one discovery. All men buy and read. alma- 
nacs, because the discoveries of a few earnest, truthful, 
scientific men have fixed the facts that regulate the 
seasons. Suns and moons and stars rise and set so 
mathematically and unmistakably accurate, that millions 
of people, without a thought of skepticism, purchase 
almanacs, regulate their business in-doors and out, and 
conduct nearly all their agricultural and commercial 
affairs, by means of the application of the discoveries 
of a few able, earnest friends of science. 

Men must go forward in their work of progressive 
civilization; they have the grand example of the 
expanded universe ever before them. The physical and 
spiritual universes never fail in any of their functions, 
because they are regulated by laws that never fail to 
carry out the designs with which they were freighted 
from the heart. Principles are the life of laws; ideas 
are the life of principles ; and God is the life of ideas. 
No man or woman is spiritually-minded until he or she 
has arrived at spirit. To be a spiritualist, is to nomi- 
nate yourself by a mere term ; to be spiritual^ is to 
possess a great soul-stirring and progressing Idea. A 
spiritual worker is one who works from the essential 



MATERIAL WORK FOR SPIRITUAL WORKERS. 409 

center — from Ideas, through the leverage of laws, using 
principles as the fulcrum over which the lever acts on 
any solid substance with which it comes in contact. 
Standing with the long end of the lever (a knowledge 
of natural law) in their hands, such workers can " move 
the mountains" which stand between them and the 
attractions and benefits of the future. Faith and works 
are inseparable. No soul is wholly destitute of faith in 
God. Truth and Love and Wisdom and immutable 
principles — these millions believe in even when they 
have no conception of a super-personal consciousness, 
God, or of an inter-personal love-essence called Nature. 
No man is destitute of faith in principles. Virtue and 
goodness and philanthropy, and whatever is high and 
noble, command the reverent love and respect of all 
mankind. 

Those who possess Ideas are truly spiritual and 
progressive people. When they work, they work as 
flowers grow, from centers through their own organiza- 
tions. Organizations come up here and there around 
them ; they spring up and bring forth like harvests in 
the fields. Thousands, yea millions, are this hour 
waiting for such center-born organizations. The 
world's busy millions do not get at Ideas ; they need 
temporary organizations and supporting substances. 
When a building is in process of construction, a scaffold- 
ing is a necessary part of the work. The carpenter 
calculates for a scaffold just as carefully as for the vari- 
ous materials out of which the building is to be made. 
When the structure is perfected, the scaffolding is 
removed. Even so when progressionists elaborate an 
idea and get it into the world, let them take down the 
18 



410 MORNING LECTURES. 

no longer 'needed scaffolding — the organization by 
which the idea was attained. Let the temple of Truth 
stand white and immortally beautiful before the eyes of 
all men. Let it be based upon the solid rock of scien- 
tific knowledge ; let it be seen and felt by all ; let it be 
inhabited by every one who feels the essential attraction. 
Must a man wear the clothes of his youth forever because 
they fitted him once ? Or, must men always cling to 
their creeds and doctrines because by means of them 
they attained newer ideas in religion and a few finer 
habits in civilization ? Let creeds, doctrines, definitions 
cease, as, indeed, they finally do with men and women 
of ideas. Distinctions vanish like the mists of morning 
in the presence of ideas that burn with such unutterable, 
glorious effulgence. But before you get to Ideas, such 
scaffolding as forms definitions, doctrines, thoughts, 
creeds, theories, systems, are necessary. 

I never stop to battle with the size of the clothes 
that children must wear. Little patterns are natural ■ 
to little folks. But I will remonstrate, and pronounce 
an injunction in the holy authority of Ideas, when I see 
grown-up persons still trying to keep in the garments 
of their childhood. Behold sectarians ! See the little 
garments with which they swathe themselves, in which 
they are bound and cribbed and cabined and confined, 
and dare not move — miserable, fashionable mummies, 
grown up apparently as big feeling as anybody with 
brains — great, handsome looking ladies, and great, 
beautiful men, going into the churches and taking on 
the old garments and sitting in sackcloth without ashes 
— all of it a part of the machinery of childhood in old- 
time religion ! It is plainly a demonstration that they 



MATERIAL WORK FOR SPIRITUAL WORKERS. 411 

have not ideas. They are not free. The children of 
light are free, because light is truth. Truth gives free- 
dom, not only to your judgments, but also to your 
affections — just as true and as free in your externals as 
in your inmost. Freedom and purity are commensurate 
and inseparable. Pure freedom comes from pure spirit. 
License and unrestrained indulgence are the impulsive 
freebootery of the impassioned soul toward that to 
which it is directed. You can see lustfulness and 
licentiousness in their disguises all through the world 
— in politics, in society, and in the social relations. 
Democratic notions of freedom are but the uncouth 
prophecies of what one day will be the common experi- 
ence of the people, accepted as divine, without any 
thought of impurity, and incorporated in the unwritten 
statutes of the universal heart. 

But there are persons who, destitute of ideas, see 
merely the forms which restrain and circumscribe them. 
Such externalists think that the world is wrong, and 
must be brought to their standard of right. That is 
bigotry. Must I hate my brother because he enters the 
Calvinistic church, and shun my sister in the Church of 
Rome, because she does not think as I do? Ideas lift 
us out of thoughts, above forms, above creeds, above 
doctrines and systems, and breathe the spirit of 
unbounded charity and good will. 

Man's power is to discover — not to create. Man 
can " create" nothing ; he can only discover and apply. 
Now man is destined to discover the laws by which the 
Infinite has expressed imperishable harmony throughout 
the material and spiritual universes — the discovery of 
the laws by which all eternal harmony is established. 



412 MORNING LECTURES. 

Succeeding this discovery will come the power to apply. 
This application will bring in new social, political, and 
religious relations, like that higher harmony which he 
beholds and worships in the physical universe. Thus 
man is endowed with a very vast mission of eternal 
uses to him. If men were destitute of ideas, they would 
be animals. If men were animals, they would be regu- 
lated by the harmonious laws of life and instinct which 
regulate animals. But mankind have ideas; therefore 
we are what animals can never be — capable of winging 
our way through the empyrean of light, through the 
universe of boundless freedom. I do not mean that we 
are free in any absolute physical sense. No man can 
fly outside of matter. No man can reverse or violate a 
principle: no man can mortally offend an idea; no man 
can disturb God. But man can by discovery bring 
himself into relation with ideas and principles and laws, 
and become physically healthy like the material uni- 
verse, and spiritually healthy like the spiritual universe. 
Then, like them and with them, he is in harmony. Then 
he can bestow happiness, goodness, and divine strength 
on those about him. This seems to me to be as simple 
as any sum in the rudiments of arithmetic. No crea- 
tions are made in music. Sounds'exist through all the 
temple of Nature. Man can merely discover the laws 
of the Omnipotent by which sounds may be made to 
harmonize in different combinations. " Music" is the 
name given to the science thus discovered, and to the 
application of the science. But there is a central key- 
note by which all notes and chords are arranged and 
attuned. 

Man's position with relation to all the kingdoms 



MATERIAL WORK FOR SPIRITUAL WORKERS. 413 

beneath is the master chord, and the central key-note. 
If he is not attuned, his discords shiver through all the 
subordinate kingdoms. If he is in harmony, all the 
kingdoms of the earth feel, enjoy, participate, recipro- 
cate, and justice reigns. Reciprocation is an expres- 
sion of Justice. Distributive justice is seen in the equal 
expansion of natural reciprocation. From your own 
system outwardly into society send forth a good and just 
condition, and you thence and thereby expand into a 
state by which you can be fed and built up stronger 
and better. 

It is necessary that many should be together in one 
place in order that all may be fed and nourished and 
made to grow by spiritual things. All persons testify 
against and naturally shrink from isolation, desolation, 
loneliness. They testify against those conditions 
because Nature, the Spirit-Mother of all intelligences, 
has determined that society shall be the form, the men- 
struum, the universal ocean in which all are molded, 
fashioned, and dissolved. 

There is a social sovereignty which is just as obliga- 
tory as individual sovereignty. Some accept the 
doctrine that " individual sovereignty" covers and 
comprehends all — that a man is allowed by Nature to 
practice and carry out his individual preferences and 
decisions "at his own cost." But this doctrine is but 
half the story of man's relation to society. It is logical 
and true ; but true only just so far as the half of any- 
thing is true. Social sovereignty is larger and grander, 
more perfect, more binding, and more divine ; just as 
the ocean is larger, grander, more perfect and more 
divine, than the spring on the mountain's side or the 



414 MORNING LECTURES. 

rivulet that starts from the quiet valley. The life of 
the individual is the stream that flows down through 
the valley. The ocean is made of all springs and all 
streams, and all the rivulets that flow down from the 
millions of hills hasten to seek their common social 
level. The ocean is the grand symbol of the Infinite 
Spirit in which all minds dwell, and out of which all 
things spring into manifestation and animation. 
Geologists tell you that all things came from the sea. 
First, the water was universal ; then came the dry 
land. The first is society. Society is universal ; then 
came institutions, organizations, dry land, solid places ; 
but the individual life is inseparable from the universal 
society of mankind. 

The spiritual worker is one who sees the idea, who 
catches the spirit within a principle, who works for the 
harmonious molding of whatever is about him, and not 
selfishly for personal advancement. For example, look at 
the question of "intemperance." The Maine liquor law, 
a matter of so much controversy some years ago, was 
passed to legislate alcohol out of existence. But the 
moment you ascend to the presence of an idea, you dis- 
cover that men are not constituted to be driven into or 
out of existence. Their appetites and passions cannot 
be easily destroyed by legislation. It is true that good 
laws may hamper and destroy, to a great extent, the 
vices of society. But how do most of our best laws 
originate? They originate with legislators and gov- 
ernors who have Ideas. A few good men first pro- 
claim the principle; then the office-seeking politicians 
grasp it and say: " There is success in that creed," and 
they take hold of it, and carry into politics what was 



MATERIAL WORK FOR SPIRITUAL WORKERS. 415 

at first a glorious effort with a few philanthropic minds. 
In ten years the good thought, the good idea that was 
first promulgated, is degraded or obliterated. Then 
come organizations, scheming, wire-pulling, log-rolling, 
all these desperate and diabolical plans which selfish 
men without principle have instituted, in order to carry 
out what they supposed would be successful. 

Then what is to be done ? Why, the Moral Police, 
composed of men and women, must continue the work. 
They must go interior — close to the life of the law — to 
the Idea! They must stand upon platforms in public and 
in private places, and utter those divine thoughts which 
go deeper than the plans and policies of the world. 
They are commissioned to act just where and in pro- 
portion as they comprehend the idea of justice. 

The spiritually-minded person is inspired. Justice 
is not a word ; it is the name of a sacred principle. It 
does not mean that you must do what I think is right. 
It means that you must be just ; first of all to and 
within yourself. Your justice to me will be like your 
habitual justice to yourself. Suppose you meet a man 
who has indulged largely in intoxication. It is useless 
to appeal to him with " What will people say ?" He 
don't care what they say ; he is, perhaps, lost to that 
kind of respect ; he does not seek it ; he has been too 
many times deceived and debauched. The sailor lies 
down in the hold of his ship, drunken as a beast. And 
the deserted, abandoned woman cannot be successfully 
appealed to from the social side of life. There is only 
one thoroughly practical way to reach those who have 
got so low in the bed of sorrow. It is by affectionately 
inspiring the hearts of such persons with the idea that 



416 MORNING LECTURES. 

they are immortal, and not only so, but that they have 
in them the resources of sweet happiness, and that 
those resources can be opened, and that you will faith- 
fully aid them in such opening and to their consequent 
happiness. First assure the person that no reliance 
can be placed upon such help from you, or from God's 
angels, or from spirits in the flesh or out, until there is 
basis in the soul's will and aspirations. You reach 
the heart the moment you ascend to this point of wis- 
dom. It is bringing justice to the person. The sad 
soul feels it. " Bathe your body, my friend ; you have 
a beautiful body. You have feet and can walk ; you 
have hands and can use your arms ; you have eyes and 
can see ; you have ears and can hear ; and a tongue 
with which to speak the words of truth. Do you dis- 
regard these parts ? Can you carry them day after 
day and respect them not ?" 

To such teaching the soul will listen. I knew a per- 
son who at once abandoned the use of tobacco when he 
discovered that his fine teeth were being spoiled. You 
might have preached to him the "Sermon on the 
Mount," or any other sermon, but nothing would reach 
and reform so soon as the appeal personal. The selfish 
are touched when you appeal to that which is in har- 
mony with their mental conditions. Plenty of persons 
are lifted out of the mud and despair, not by an idea, 
but by a pair of comfortable shoes. It is so much bet- 
ter to begin with people where you find them. Show 
that you are a genuine brother or sister, that your 
interest is not selfish, but of divine ideas, and the heart. 
You work from the life of God that is within, from the 
idea of fraternal affection and resurrection. Preach 



MATERIAL WORK FOR SPIRITUAL WORKERS. 417 

resurrection to the dead, and tell them that the trump 
must sound. I believe that the trump is now sound- 
ing in the ear of every person in this wide world. 
The gospel of progress is the trump of the resurrection. 
The dead are all around you, and sometimes within 
yourself; that is, dead faculties, or thoughts "dead in 
trespasses and sins." If you are' anywhere inert, you 
are to the same extent dead, and involved in this ques- 
tion of the resurrection. What portion of you do you 
feel to-day to be of no service to yourself or to man- 
kind? That portion calls for the influence of some 
resurrecting mind. We should be to each other a thou- 
sand times more precious than we are ; each should go 
out of self, and enter upon a broader^and more glorious 
field of work. Do you wish to promote your own per- 
sonal development? Then work for the personal 
development and happiness of others. Only on these 
terms will you advance. It is like the blacksmith 
unthinkingly developing his right arm. Does he swing 
the hammer with the intention of expanding and hard- 
ening his muscular power ? He stands by his anvil, 
and you say " What a strong, brawny arm that work- 
ing man has ! What a deep, large chest ! What great 
muscles about his shoulders!" "Yes," he replies; "I 
have continued at my daily work." He is healthily, 
muscularly, beautifully developed, because he has 
wrought with the iron for others, and not for the per- 
sonal purpose of building upon his body. 

Thus, if you work and pray for your own private 
spiritual development, you will not be developed very 
soon. If I unfold this lecture in your presence for any 
personal gratification, of the selfish kind, 1 shall be 



418 MORNING LECTURES. 

neither gratified nor improved by what is uttered. Do 
a benevolent act for the express purpose of being pub- 
licly applauded for your organ of benevolence, and the 
result will do you no good. The motive would be self- 
ish, and the action could not bring a blessing. If your 
existence ne6ds expansion and your mind culture, then 
promote benevolence and culture in others. Go out of 
your selfish circles into the society of the poor. Never 
think that because you go to the bedside of the sick, 
you will yourself be cured. If you bestow healthful 
influences upon the sick, without undue exhaustion, you 
are sure to be personally benefited. Do good from a 
selfish motive, and you will find a chemical poison at 
the very heart, which will leave your nature as poor as 
a miser is with his full coffers. 

The spiritual worker is one who, impressed with the 
idea of fraternal love, and feeling its holy warmth in 
the soul, goes right out into society with healing in his 
wings. Such a person goes and comes as a peace- 
maker. Natures of this stamp are commissioned from 
the heaven of heavens to do unto others as they would 
have others do unto them, and that, too, without a 
thought of the golden rule. They obey it because they 
are as good as it. They who so live and so act, are 
constantly dwelling in that state to which they would 
elevate all mankind. 

Man is destined to bring about in society the har- 
' mony of all the passions which are demons, and of the 
appetites, too, which are unclean spirits, and the balance 
of all the various discords of his mind, which are his 
ever-present satans. Demons and unclean spirits are to 
be vanquished, but only by the power of spiritual work- 



MATERIAL WORK FOR SPIRITUAL WORKERS. 4 1 *) 

ers who start from the throne of Ideas. No man can 
conquer a passion for tobacco, or destroy the force of 
any appetite, by merely acting upon it from his will. 
The soul and body are raised by means of an inspira- 
tion, toward health and purity, which reaches and 
buoys up the mind until the physical passion subsides 
and the besetting appetite departs. Some minds attain 
this state by a sort of change in their physical or chemi- 
cal growth ; others reach it by means of what they call 
religious revivalism, or conversion. But the cultured 
way to it is through the comprehension and application 
of Ideas. The principal idea which exalts and equali- 
zes mankind, without filling the individual with ego- 
tism, is that each is supreme head of all the kingdoms 
beneath ; that the high function of each is to discover 
the unchangeable laws which give harmony and per- 
fection to the universe ; and finally to apply the teach- 
ings of those laws to all the kingdoms, powers, functions 
about him not only, but also to all the passions, organs, 
demons, satans, or appetites and discords within the 
temple of private being. Mankind are destined to be 
" lords of creation," both materially and spiritually. 
What is possible to all, is possible to each, and vice 
versa. All may become gentle, and useful, and beautiful, 
loving their neighbors as themselves. None can live and 
work in this way, save the truly spiritual. I know that 
such souls are in the churches, at the bottom of all re- 
ligious organizations. They are the spiritual men 
who first realized Ideas. John Wesley, John Murray, 
John Calvin — these, and many who are visible all the 
way down the steeps of time, wrought from the life of 
Ideas. 



420 MORNING LECTURES. 

Let us, therefore, concern ourselves not deeply with 
organizations and instruments of labor ; for, with true 
Ideas, helpful organizations will inevitably come. 
Thus every wholesome organization comes up. An idea 
starts the principle ; the principle divulges the law ; 
the law dictates the method. An organization, conse- 
quently, is inevitable. Individual labors for mankind 
will bear " good fruit" when governed by the inspira- 
tions of Ideas. Such labors may be distributed and 
imitated throughout parts of civilization. Great phi- 
lanthropists slumber here and there waiting for some 
occasion to resurrect them. Act well the part of a 
spiritual being; be faithful to what is true and good; 
the future will take loving care of both itself and you. 
This is the heavenly rest that comes from true inspira- 
tion of ideas. Think not of to-morrow, or next year ; 
work now, living nobly in your day and hour. Be true 
to the life of truth. The life of truth is God. JBe 
faithful ever, and true-hearted to all who love you. 
Years ago men used to say to me, " Well, Mr. Davis, 
if God is in this work, it will succeed, and if he is not, 
it will come to naught/" 5 Assuredly ; nothing is more 
certain. It is the good, wholesome, old-fashioned 
notion about special providences in man's life. I like 
it. Yes, God is always in everything, and more espe- 
cially in the idea of everything. You and your God 
may walk together. The Divine is not afar off, look- 
ing with a great eye to see whether you are doing the 
fair thing or not. An Idea is from God. Work from 
its inspirations, and you and your God are one. Thus 
the inheritance of life becomes a perpetual blessing. 



ULTIMATES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 



" There are some qualities— some incorporate things, 
That have a double life, which thus is made 
A type of that twin entity which springs 
From matter and light, evinced in solid and soul." 

By the term Summer-Land is meant a sphere of 
perpetual youth, where physical disease, which is dis- 
cord, does not, because it cannot, prevail ; where the 
effects of moral imperfections and evils continue ; where 
.the consequences of bodily and mental infirmities are 
visible, not in the constitution and appearance of that 
existence, but wholly in the constitution and appearance 
of those who possess those infirmities when they go 
from the earth to that land. This lecture is concern- 
ing the existence and appearance of "ultimates" in the 
Summer-Land. In a future volume I hope to be ena- 
bled, by means of new astronomical and picturesque 
diagrams, to illustrate what I cannot impart through 
language. There are yet very important lessons to be 
conveyed in connection with this glorious question of 
man's immortal existence. Word-painting cannot ade- 
quately impart to the mind what a few illustrations 
would beautifully and permanently impress. This 
question of " ultimates" in the Summer-Land, in con- 



422 MORNING LECTURES. 

tradistinction to primates and proximates, may be very 
plainly and briefly stated. In this discourse, however, 
I can do little more than lay out the work. 

To properly prepare your minds to see the ultimates, 
it may be necessary first to speak of primates and 
proximates. Let us endeavor to strike the key-note to 
which the music of the world is set, so that every ear 
may hear and every heart understand the glorious 
truths of eternal existence. We must search the volume 
of Nature, because in its pages we find the gospel of 
death and of eternal life. " The firmament," which is 
overhead in the temple of Nature, " showeth handi- 
work." The firmament, therefore, is the open scroll of 
the infinite volume. Its contents are the true " scrip- 
tures" for mankind "to search." Everything in arti- 
ficial bibles which corresponds to the teachings of the 
Scriptures in this expanded universe, is eternal truth. 
Everything, on the other hand, which conflicts with 
these natural scriptures, must fall among the tares and 
errors, and be swept away by the billows of the rolling 
years, with every other thing erroneous and outgrown 
by man in his onward march. Men never shrink from 
errors that are burnt up and gone. They only shrink 
from the mortification and " the pain" caused at the 
moment of their destruction. A new truth, like a dentist, 
puts his iron grasp upon the old-time and loved error, 
and pulls it out k < by the roots" from its deep socket in 
the brain. Sometimes, indeed, the root of the error is 
deeper — in very sincere and delicate affections. Not 
many pains suffered by human souls can be more intense 
than the extraction of worshiped and costly errors 
made sacred by time and important by the pomp of 



ULTIMATB8 IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 423 

circumstance and occasion. I know tender souls who 
shrink from the pain and mortification inseparable from 
such reformation, somewhat as cowardly men dread the 
tender caressing of the professional dentist. 

But the trial must come sooner or later. Errors, 
however beautiful and gold-errameled by time, must 
be extracted from the human mind by the archangel of 
eternal truth. Search the scriptures of Nature — the 
handiwork of the firmament — for in them you will find 
the holy truths of eternal life. To understand the 
apocalyptic glories of the universe, study the Genesis of 
.this God-inspired volume. The Genesis and the Exo- 
dus of the book are the Primates and the Proximates. 
The Ultimates you cannot see in this world except logic- 
ally from the force of philosophical principles. In 
this lecture I may not speak of the Ultimates as I have 
seen them, and as you will see them one of these days, 
because time will not permit, and justice to the ques- 
tion admonishes me to present only the fundamental 
lessons for consideration. Humanity is now divided, 
by scientific men, into distinct races. Whether such 
division be correct or incorrect, we need not now stop 
to consider. They commence with their classifications 
— down or up, as the case may be — first, the Caucasian; 
second, the Mongolian ; third, the Indian ; fourth, the 
Malay ; fifth and lastly, the Negro. This order is 
tracing mankind from what might be termed Ultimates, 
down to their rudiments, or Primates. Let us commence 
with the roots — with the Negro — and come up through the 
Malay, the Indian race, the Mongolian, and halt at the 
Caucasian, which civilkees have both the honor and 
the dishonor to represent. We leave this classification 
for the present, lodged in the mind. 



424 MORNING LECTURES. 

Scientific men, whether correctly or not, have also 
classified the organic world into regularly ascending 
stages. No intelligent mind can long think chaotically. 
An intelligent mind, to make intellectual progress, must 
think as Nature compels him to think — from primates, 
on and up through infinite complications and endlessly 
successive combinations, to ultimates. Thus he makes 
progress both by the reflex action of education and by 
the legitimate and natural exercise of his faculties. 
Truly scientific men are constrained by Nature to think 
progressively up from the mollusk to full-blossomed 
humanity. They arrange the scale musically if they 
are inclined to music, or arbitrarily, if they are inclined 
to follow the routine of scholastic learning. They 
arrange it naturally and deductively if they have 
spiritual illumination. It is very much like the botany 
that is taught in the s schools ; there is the natural 
analysis of plants, and there is also the artificial method. 
Some commence naturally with the roots and go on 
upward, following the chronological order of its 
growth. The artificial analysis commences with the 
surfaces and works toward the basis. Nature compels 
man to investigate with system, because all is a perfect 
system. Whoso questions Nature aright, truly reads 
the scriptures which teach of God and eternity. 

Nature, by scientific men, is studied and classified 
in her organic relations progressively. Commence with 
the lowest form of fish life ; work up through the age 
of serpents ; come to birds ; study the marsupials : 
then the mammalia; then the quadrumanals, troglo- 
dytes, and the gorillas ; then stop at home and investi- 
gate Man. I think the scientific world has not yet 



ULTIMATES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 425 

taken its own position into the account; it has not 
yet ascertained its own relation and importance to the 
onward progress of the race. Not having done this, it 
is overlooking the very key-note to which all the music 
of the world's intellectual growth is set. I suppose 
that this blindness is right, because Nature makes 
science masculine, superficial, proud, exclusive, exact, 
always on the surface, yet necessary to the world's 
growth. But there is something more inspiring than 
science, i. e. — Art. Art is but Nature in her " superior 
state/ 3 Science is Nature reporting herself with mate- 
rial eyes and in " a common state" — always positive, 
never designing to confuse chalk with cheese, never 
intentionally calling a thing black when it is white. 
Granite is always granite in the eyes of science. It 
is natural, therefore, that science should decide that 
man's life goes out like his breath when he dies. 
Science very honestly, stoutly, sternly, godlessly says 
that man does not survive the decay of his organs. The 
religious world takes up the evidence not seen by 
science. So far as it goes, however, science is the 
world's grandest archangel — without wings, without a 
heart for humanity, with only a front brain, having no 
affections for theories, creeds, or philosophy. 

But* Art comes to our relief. She comes from the 
woman side of Nature. Art reports the most interior, 
and unfolds the ultimates of the life of things. Music 
can never be separated from art. Poetry and music 
have pure affections. Painting is but another expression 
of universal art. Science commences at the right side 
and works leftward ; art commences in the left side 
and works rightward ; thus they meet, and interlock, 



426 MORNING LECTUREB. 

and silver-chain together in their marchings. Art 
rises spirally toward heaven, but science continues hori- 
zontally with the earth ; with its eyes upon the stars 
it rises not; for it sees only solid bodies reflecting 
light. Art alone interprets the light of the stars and 
gives the music to which all bodies are wedded. The 
magnificent beauty of the physical world is unfolded 
through art. Science respects art only so far as it will 
illustrate and develop the exactitudes of science. 

Nature works in this wise and beautiful way. She 
starts her men, the masculine power, from the right, 
and her feminine elements from the left, and thence 
they work in opposite directions. Art moves upward 
until it reaches a certain elevation," and then it begins 
to draw its credentials from science. Then it lets down 
its buckets in the deep wells of exact discoveries, and 
draws up thence its best and most enduring lessons. 

As spiritualists, as searchers for eternal life, we 
should become acquainted with both the right and the 
left hands of Nature. Let us contemplate nature in 
man and nature in woman ; nature in God, and there- 
fore God in nature. God commences with the right, 
and thence works leftward round and round, and circles 
over and over throughout infinitude. Nature com- 
mences with the left, and thence works rightward and 
reaches the ultimate center, and unites with the soul 
and mind in the fountain of all supreme excellence and 
glory. The two meet and flow through each other, 
returning and circling to and fro perpetually, the one 
being represented by Science and the other by Art. 

The negro may be said to represent the left side of 
humanity. This statement certainly puts a new com- 



ULTIMATES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 427 

plexion on the subject. The negro starts from the left side, 
the Caucasian from the right, and the opposite races work 
leftward and rightward in all countries and in all his- 
tory. The negro is artful and emotional. He repre- 
sents nature in her senses ; the Caucasian is nature in 
her brains and organs. The first manifestation of taste 
in the female nature is surface ornaments, display, 
colors, gems, eyes, teeth, personal presentation. This 
is the feminine power in the senses : the first manifesta- 
tion of the left side attractions. The masculine com- 
mences with the brain and works into the senses, and 
scarcely ever gets out of them. If more men were out 
of their senses — in their superior condition — and had 
arrived at Art, "the world would be the better for it." 
Woman commences leftward and works rightward. 
She begins in the heart of things and expands and 
reaches to the surface-plane from which man started. 

The middle or neutral ground is occupied by the 
transition races — say the Malays, the Indians, and the 
Mongolians. The middle ground, therefore, is occupied 
by these bridges, which connect the two sides of 
humanity. These three types in the organic world, I 
repeat, bridge over between the feminine and the mas- 
culine in ethnology, and in the interior attributes of 
opposite races. You have often seen the beautiful con- 
centric lines of work in the shells on the sea-shore. All 
sea-shells are made with spiral lines ; they can be con- 
structed in no other way. What does it mean ? It 
means that they are illustrations of Art, which com- 
mences from Nature's left side and works artistically. 
All the shells in the depths, caves, and grottoes of the 
sea are adorned with her glorious artistic impress and 



428 MORNING LECTURES. 

handiwork. But Man's art is not like the art of Nature. 
His art is science, a thoughtful child of the brain. He 
studies and works to find out how Nature made her 
shell, and fish, and birds, and stars. His aim is to 
imitate such labors. An egg is one of the most simple, 
wonderful, and beautiful works of Mother Nature. By 
the fullness and undulations of the large end, and by 
the spiral crinkles at the small end, an experienced eye 
can tell which is feminine and which masculine. 

All forces meet and conspire in the human organi- 
zation. You will find that all powers of mind come out 
in the highest types of the human race. But in the 
negro* you find what men call the sentiments and emo- 
tions. He fully enjoys his senses. Loving simple 
pleasure, he seeks it on the surface, but readily deepens 
by education. The Malay is very different. It is the 
Khodent. It is the class of mind that seeks to live on 
others. It chooses a dark abode and burrows in the 
ground. The Indian, whether he be North American 
or Oriental, is very different. The squirrel and the 
raccoon, and the animals that live like them in the 
forests, represent the Indian, and they will live and 
they will die together. When Nature gets old enough 
to destroy all of the animals that live on nuts and 
acorns and berries and fruit's of the field and the forest, 
and when she also destroys all that live upon the flesh 
of other animals, then will she be also old enough to 
seal the destiny of the Oriental as well as the western 
tribes of the streams and wildernesses. 

But the system works onward. She next gets into 
the Mongolian. The Mongolian is represented by the 
quadrumanal. Horses, cows, dogs, wolves, and the 



ULTIMATES IN THE SUMMER- LAND. 429 

domestic mammalia, correspond to this branch ot 
the human family. The Caucasian world is repre- 
sented by the European and the American. This 
portion of mankind pursues all parts of nature by 
science, and lays all existence under heavy tribute. 
The Caucasian subjects the world to himself. No 
representative of any other race has such pre- 
eminence. He eats freely of everything, breathes 
all atmospheres, enjoys all possible shades of pleasures. 
He pursues happiness through progression. The negro 
pursues simple life and pleasure through the senses. 
The Caucasian aspires after happiness, which includes 
all pleasure and is the white flower of every kind of 
obedience. Nature contributes freely from all her 
departments, and constantly yields to his persistent 
encroachments and innumerable discoveries. The 
Caucasian seems to be representative of the higher race 
to come. He expands into the universal Yankee, which 
is a newspaper epithet of much significance, because he is 
destined to become the climacteric development of the 
antecedent races, to expand by means of his energy and 
encroachments and infringements, all over the inhabita- 
ble globe. 

The American does not become Europeanized. The 
negro does not cause the white man to be Africanized, 
except so far as imitation and temporary association 
go, and the upshot of it all is, that the African becomes 
Caucasianized in his habits, tendencies, and aspirations. 
The African is a simple child of Nature, filled with the 
sentimentalities of Art. The Caucasian holds up to 
him the banners of industry, of science, philosophy, 
nvestigation — opens his eyes to behold the temples of 



430 MORNING LECTURES. 

learning and of universal progress. When a man sits 
down to a table and partakes of* beef, he does not 
become beef, but beef becomes him. That is true of 
the Caucasian world. The Negro, the Malayan, the 
Indian and the Mongolian are walking and working 
together — as none of them could walk and work singly. 
The Caucasian shakes hands with them all. Bayard 
Taylor is cosmopolitan, so also are other travelers who 
feel the blood of America fully developed in their veins. 
They go anywhere on the face of this planet, shake 
hands with the people, and affiliate with them all as 
brother associates with brother. The Negro cannot do 
this ; the Malay cannot do it ; no Indian can do it; only 
the Caucasian goes all over the world and makes it con- 
tribute its riches to his science. He travels by the map 
and the compass; he steers by the north star; and he 
makes friends with science and philosophy. He subjects 
all things around him in order to make of them so many 
new instrumentalities of his greater expansion. 

What does all this mean ? It means that the human 
family ascends, through the gradual development of the 
races, to the Caucasian world. It does not, however, 
mean that other races are cast down into the earth's 
chemistry, and thus lose their immortality at death. It 
would be as reasonable to teach that the superior facul- 
ties of the mind liv£ forever, while the social and per- 
ceptive faculties, which ally him to the interests of 
creation, do not survive death. Man goes to the Second 
Sphere, with the ultimates of all his parts, portions, and 
functions. So the Caucasian race goes into the future, 
not as the only regal and royal product of the organic 
world, but as a member of the family of races. The 



ULTIMATES IN THE SlfMMER-LAND. 431 

ultimates of every race in the Summer-Land establish a 
community or a world of their own. So long as the 
individuality of a race can be extended through its 
organization, so long will that race continue to project 
itself into the history and experience of coming ages. 
The Caucasian man and woman can visit all the brother- 
hoods and mingle with all classes and families there. 

Principles incorporated in his mind begin to devel- 
ope themselves, and to link him sympathetically with 
all other races and brotherhoods. Thus extremes 
meet. The negro and the white man — that is to say, 
the African and the Caucasian, as left hand and right — 
are coming eventually together, and will friendly face 
like palm to palm. The star of empire goeth westward ; 
will it not cross the Pacific, and connect itself with that 
eastern world whence civilization sprung ? If the cir- 
cuit is made and the connection perfect, it will be like 
a magnetic circle. 

When civilization crosses from our Western borders 
and marches to the steppes of Asia, what then will 
happen ? Europe will follow in the train, leaving the 
very place whence civilization started, to see where the 
Yankee is going to ; but the old race never can catch 
him ! 

When this world is unfolded with a state of civili- 
zation all around it, it will then represent what is 
practically known to be the highest source of joy in the 
Summer-Land. Extremes and ultimates meet in the 
sphere to which we go at death. The left hand and 
the right — the male and the female elements of nature 
— are certain to meet there, if they do not meet before. 
Here they meet only on the surface ; there they meet 



432 MORNING LECTURES. 

from the interior. The Negro will never fully under- 
stand the Caucasian in this world ; because the Cau- 
casian will never folly understand the Negro ; while the 
races that come between these extremes will be neither 
understood nor tolerated. Two races will have in this 
world a long parallel career — the left and the right, 
or the Negro and the Caucasian. 

Nature insists upon having both left and right fully 
balanced in one body. No Indian prospers on this con- 
tinent, neither does the Malayan, nor the Mongolian. 
Only the Negro can prosper in copartnership with the 
Caucasian. I do not mean to teach that the races will 
become affiliated and amalgamated each with the other. 
The moment the opposite races touch perfectly, that 
moment they take separate rooms in the Father's house. 
They work for each other and through each other 
without affiliation or loss of individuality. The Indian 
is nearly related to neither race, and because he does 
not affiliate with them as closely as others do, he drops 
outward and goes away from among the races. 

The two opposite races meet again in the Summer- 
Land. Does not the Bible say that the "least shall be 
greatest in the kingdom of heaven" ? There are 
Christians who sincerely believe that the person who 
is here the most thoroughly "poor in spirit," will be 
the richest and greatest there. You will find that 
there is a deep meaning in this sentence. Does it not 
mean that the left-race will be equal to the race of the 
right-side ? The greatest here will be the least there. 
They that superficially exalt themselves, are naturally 
abased, because the next step they take from a false 
exaltation, is certain to plant them upon a lower posi- 
tion. 



ULTIMATES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 433 

The Negro, starting from this left side of nature, 
and the Caucasian from the right, will in the Summer- 
Land represent two great opposite races. Men do not 
take their complexions with them. They take only the 
facts, which are indestructible — the consequences, the 
ultimates, the realities — not the primates, the fictions 
and the falsehoods. Ultim^es are fully developed 
after death, and they are so developed that what here 
corresponds to Indians, Mongolians, and Malays, are 
there visible and distinguishable by many radical cha- 
racteristics. 

Tn the Father's house there are " many mansions," 
because there are essentially different modifications of 
the human family. Each wants a comfortable, happy 
place in the Second Sphere. In the Summer-Land 
there are localities for all divisions and shades of the 
human race. There are always wings to great palaces. 
Middle places too, but grand side-positions invariably. 
The Caucasian world moves all through one wing, and 
the African world is free to move all through the 
opposite wing of the infinite palace. Nature is just as 
powerful and beautiful and eternal as God. God and 
nature work together; so Science and Art work 
together. The male and the female go on through all 
eteriiity. Intermediates also long continue. The princi- 
ples that are at work artistically making the tiny shells 
upon the sea-shore, are eternal principles. They are 
working as faithfully in the higher spheres as within 
and upon the earth. They round out globes and make 
roads throughout the universe. 

On some future occasion it may be shown what has 
ultimated and blossomed-out in the Second Sphere from 
19 



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434 MORNING LECTURES. 

the various kingdoms organized on the faee of the 
earth. How natural and beautiful is what men call 
"spirit!" How rational and philosophical is all that, 
men term "supernatural!" How entirely "at home," 
and not as strangers* will we all be when each has 
ascended to the Summer-Land! 



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